A Concordia University study revealed that 20 per cent of Montrealers do not have access to a quality grocery store within 10 minutes of their home.
Sepideh Khorramisarvestani, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography, Urban Planning and Environment at Concordia University, has focused her research on access to local services and the concept of local planning.
In specialist journals, proximity planning is defined as “an urban planning strategy that aims to design neighborhoods and cities where essential services, workplaces, amenities and residential areas are located close enough to each other to be easily accessible by non-motorized means, usually on foot or by bicycle.”
The doctoral student decided to work on this concept of proximity planning by focusing on access to grocery stores and healthy food in Montreal.
“My study is essentially based on a daily analysis of access to shops,” says Sepideh Khorramisarvestani.
To carry out her study, Khorramisarvestani used three different scenarios: walking, cycling, and combining these active modes of transport with public transport.
The objective was to examine the impact of these different modes of transport on access to quality food products and grocery stores.
She also wanted to know how public transport can contribute to achieving proximity planning objectives, reducing CO2 emissions and making cities more sustainable.
“The initial idea of this study was to make cities more sustainable through the concept and objectives of proximity planning, and to transpose these ideas to North American cities,” explained Khorramisarvestani.
Khorramisarvestani mentioned that transposing this concept of proximity planning to large North American cities is more complicated, because each city has a particular DNA.
“For example, facilitating access to local services by bicycle is more complex in North American cities, such as Canada and the United States, than in some European countries,” she revealed.
When determining travel time, the research team took into account realistic factors, such as walking to public transport stops, waiting time, and transfers.
According to an article published by Concordia University, researchers considered all healthy food stores located within a ten-minute walk or bike ride of the home or workplace of a physically independent and healthy adult to be locally accessible. For longer trips, the team used a 30-minute window combining active travel and public transportation.
“We used the centroids of all the city blocks in Montreal to simulate access to more than 900 grocery stores and determine the travel time and distance for users,” explained the doctoral student. “From there, we were able to calculate the number of grocery stores available near each centroid.”
Through this process, Khorramisarvestani’s team obtained a figure for each block. This made it possible to determine whether access to grocery stores was sufficient and which mode of transportation was the most advantageous and sustainable.
Key results and potential solutions
“Our results showed that within a 10-minute walk of their home, approximately 20 per cent of Montrealers do not have access to a grocery store,” stated Khorramisarvestani. “Furthermore, about half the population does not have adequate access to grocery stores. Because when we talk about access to grocery stores, it’s not just their number or their existence that matters, but also the diversity of choices offered.”
“We found that where demand is high, access to businesses is limited,” said Khorramisarvestani. “Therefore, we concluded that these areas require immediate intervention.” The study specifically mentioned underserved areas, such as Montreal North and the suburbs in general.
This study also highlighted that the elderly and people with reduced mobility are particularly affected by these issues of proximity and speed of travel.
The results of this study also demonstrated that the high number of bicycles in Montreal helps reduce accessibility inequalities and that neighborhoods with bike paths achieved more satisfactory results. However, the best way to access healthy food currently remains a combination of active transportation modes with public transit.
According to Khorramisarvestani, the implementation of certain measures could prove very beneficial.
“We suggest planning measures, such as installing cycling infrastructure around grocery stores or adding luggage racks to this infrastructure,” she stated. “Our results indicate that integrating this infrastructure with public transit would ensure almost complete access to Montreal.”
“Our results show that access to healthy food can be significantly improved by establishing grocery stores near public transportation. This way, people could stock up on essential products on their way home from work,” Khorramisarvestani also stated in an article published by Concordia University.
When questioned by The Canadian Press about the applicability of her study to other cities, Khorramisarvestani expressed her conviction that the framework and methodology could be applied in all other cities. She asserted that smaller towns also face this accessibility problem.
However, she pointed out that in some suburban areas and in several small Canadian towns, certain sectors are not taken into account in studies on urban density and that their development is often focused on the automobile, which complicates the situation.
Sepideh Khorramisarvestani, who worked on this accessibility study for about six months, revealed his desire to learn more about the DNA and urban and commercial morphology of Montreal.
She will soon be working on a study on the spatial distribution of shops and their emotional dimension.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
