Master's Projects

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22451

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 1488

11 Years and Beyond: A Visual Exploration of Collective Arts for Climate Justice
(2020-05-25) Gelderman, Hannah; Clover, Darlene
As we collectively navigate the interconnected climate and inequality crises and fight for a just and habitable future, the arts and creative practices have a critical role to play. In 11 Years and Beyond: A Visual Exploration of Collective Arts for Climate Justice I focus specifically on the role of locally produced, participatory visual arts as a response to both the drivers and the impacts of the climate crisis. From a climate communications perspective participatory visual arts have already proven effective in engaging people in climate solutions (Burke, Ockwell, & Whitmarsh, 2018; Roosen, Klöckner, & Swim, 2018). In addition to improving climate change communications, participatory visual arts offer us a platform to envision a different world (Galafassi et al., 2018), strengthen our activism (Duncombe & Lambert, 2018), build community connection (Berman, 2017), and increase our resiliency (Huss, Kaufman, Avgar & Shuker, 2016) which all help us to navigate, resist and transform our current capitalist, colonial paradigm. Artists, organizers and others who facilitate participatory art projects have an important role to play in these processes, but I have found that there is a lack of resources for those seeking to make change at the intersection of art and activism. To fill this gap I have used arts-based research methods (thus leveraging the power of the arts in my own research) to create Collective Arts for Climate Justice, an illustrated guide in zine format, that advocates for the use of locally produced, participatory visual art practices as a necessary part of our response to our current crises. Because "arts-based forms have the potential to reach wider audiences, including nonacademic audiences" (Leavy & Harris, 2019, p. 216) I have illustrated all my background information (e.g., my literature review), as well as the zines, to ensure that all my research can be as accessible as possible. Through this I hope to invite organizers, artists, and others to utilize community based visual arts to further expand our collective and community capacity to respond to the climate crisis. The growth of participatory art practices can help invigorate and strengthen us as we fight for climate justice, renew our relationships with the land, and build the world we want to live in.
21st century competencies: the effect on teacher workload
(2015-04-27) Arksey, Lori; Milford, Todd
This project is a proposed strategic plan for districts, schools and individual teachers to aid in the successful implementation of 21st century competencies, specifically Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making and Lifelong Learning, Personal Management and Well-being, while keeping in mind teacher workload. The proposed strategic plans allow for the breakdown of new initiatives into manageable goals, while keeping in mind government mandates and teacher attrition. Included is an exemplar plan for all levels and stakeholders who include the school district, schools and individual teachers. This was created in the wake of a mandate letter from Alberta Education (2010) which specified that teachers must teach students the competencies as well as the original curriculum, in all grades across all subject levels and grades.
A comparative analysis of mould growth on exterior sheathing of a brick masonry wall in different Canadian climate zones
(2024) Singh, Jasveer; Mukhopadhyaya, Phalguni; Valeo, Caterina
This study investigates the risk of mould growth on sheathing boards in brick masonry walls in four Canadian cities: Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Saskatoon. The hygrothermal simulation tool WUFI® Pro 6.8 (1D) and the VTT Mold Index were used to conduct this investigation. The impact of moisture penetration through brick veneer cladding on the potential for mould growth in Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Fiberboard (FB), and Plywood (Ply) sheathing was assessed. For hygrothermal simulations, a severe weather year was selected based on a 31-year historical weather dataset (1986-2016) using the severity index (Isev) method prescribed in the ASHRAE Standard 160-2021. The calculation period was set for seven years, and two wall orientations were considered: (i) direction with the least solar radiation and (ii) maximum wind-driven rain direction. For each orientation, three rain penetration cases (1%, 2% and 3% of wind-driven rain) were considered, and two Air Change Rates (ACH 0 and ACH 15) were considered in the drainage cavity for each of the three rain penetration cases. As per ASHRAE 160-2021, the rain penetration was deposited on the outer layer of the water-resistive barrier (WRB). The results showed that for the 1% rain penetration and no ventilation, the mould growth index (MGI) for all three sheathing boards remained at zero (i.e., No mould growth) for Vancouver’s north-oriented wall (least solar radiation); however, the southeast-facing wall (maximum wind-driven rain) experienced a higher MGI (up to 5.3). For the same case (i.e. 1% rain penetration), the remaining simulated cities experienced MGI>5 (i.e., 50% visually covered surface). In the case of increased rain penetration and no ventilation, each sheathing board’s mould growth performance significantly decreased (MGI>5) for all four cities in both orientations; however, an air change rate of 15/hour (ACH 15) in the drainage cavity reduced the mould growth (MGI<1, local growth microscopic level) in Calgary, Ottawa and Saskatoon. In contrast, ACH 15 was insufficient to reduce the MGI < 3 (i.e., visuals of mould <10% surface coverage) for the Vancouver location, except for the 1% rain penetration case.
A comparison of Long Short-Term Memory, Convolutional Neural Network, Transformer, and Mamba models for sentiment analysis
(2024) Ruan, Hang; Gulliver, Thomas Aaron
Sentiment analysis is a critical task in Natural Language Processing (NLP) that helps decode the emotions and opinions embedded in text. With applications spanning from market research and social media monitoring to political analysis and customer feedback evaluation, sentiment analysis provides invaluable insights into public opinion and consumer behavior. This project studies the evolution of sentiment analysis models, focusing on the advancements made by deep learning techniques such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), and transformer-based models like Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). These models have set new benchmarks for accuracy, efficiency, and versatility. Additionally, this explores Mamba, a recent State Space Model (SSM) designed to overcome the computational challenges of transformers in handling long sequences and demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on language modeling tasks comparable to transformers twice its size. This study examines the strengths and limitations of these models, comparing their performance on sentiment analysis datasets to provide a comprehensive understanding of their applicability and efficacy in various contexts.
A fire to last until morning: What's the point of art in the apocalypse?
(2025-12-04) Lowey, Braedon George
"A Fire To Last Until Morning" is a documentary film that features authors, scholars, journalists, and artists who all work at the intersection of climate change and humanities to address why their work is important in the ongoing efforts to preserve our natural world for future generations. By focusing on specific voices in three different locations — Lytton and Victoria in B.C., and Reykjavik in Iceland — "A Fire" highlights case studies of art and scholarship making impacts in the world from individual to generational scales. The first segment of the film interviews poet Meghan Fandrich in Lytton and concludes that relating experiences of climate change and natural disasters through artistic mediums helps creators and consumers, as well as members of impacted communities, process climate-related trauma. The second section features journalist Sean Holman and playwright Chantal Bilodeau, and concludes that exposure to eco-narratives, both real and fictional, drives people towards more sustainable decision-making and more hopeful feelings about climate change. The third section features Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason and musician Néfur, and concludes that art can connect us to nature in innovative ways, forming or bolstering connections to the land that we see changing. The film ultimately argues that art is one of the most effective ways of sustaining attention on climate change, and is essential for both driving people towards environmentalist causes and empowering those who are already acting in the planet's best interests.
A Formative Evaluation of the Whistler 360 Health Collaborative Society
(2024) Lutz, Erin; Chouinard, Jill
Whistler 360 Health Collaborative Society (Whistler 360 Health) is a locally governed charitable organization established in 2022 based on two years of research to address the shortage of primary care providers in Whistler, BC (Whistler 360 Health Collaborative Society, 2023). This evaluation was conducted during the first year of Whistler 360 Health taking over operations of Whistler Medical Clinic in January 2023. This evaluation aims to provide a narrative of Whistler 360 Health during its first year of implementation and operation and identify key areas of success, learning, and recommendations for further implementation. Whistler 360 Health is in the early stages of implementation. As such, the purpose of this formative evaluation is to explore the strengths and challenges experienced to date, the unique strengths of this initiative, and factors relevant to its future sustainability.
A language survey to support language revitalization among the Kelabit
(2024) Urud, Mutang; Daniels, Belinda
The Indigenous Kelabit of Sarawak are experiencing a language shift as we migrate to the cities from the interior pursuing education and employment. To understand this situation, I conducted a community-wide language survey of the Kelabit language as spoken in the village communities of Lung Napir and Lung Seridan. My main question was to discern the status and health of the Kelabit language in our communities. As a longtime cultural and environmental activist and having authored a dictionary on my language, I considered this survey would be helpful for planning and programming to reverse the current trend in Kelabit. To frame my research design, I used Indigenous research methodologies combining quantitative and qualitative methods with indigenization of the research process. My research is largely informed by existing theories on language shift and ways of reversing it. The methods I used were conducting language forums, a survey and key informant interviews. The survey investigates the language status, participant's attitude to our language and how they perceive its usefulness into the future as well as the health of the language, with respect to its vitality. I conducted six language forums, attended by 157 people, and 108 who completed the survey. Of significance to our language status is that our data indicates a large majority of the participants express a positive attitude to our language’s future, a clear reflection of the value we place on our Indigenous identity. This is despite an indication that the Kelabit language is ‘definitely endangered’, used mostly by the parental generation and up. Roughly, a third of the participants do not speak the language, and Elders expressed concern regarding its impacts on our language transmission in the context of mixed-marriages and increasing urbanization. In terms of the language health, almost three quarters of our people continue to speak the language, giving us much hope in reversing the one third who are not. But an alarming development in our community is that two thirds of families do not speak Kelabit to their children, a clear sign of language endangerment. When language shift happens, it loses its function in a society. The work of reversing involves a community restoring those functions. This phenomenon will guide our future activities, in encouraging language use in our daily communications and social events. Recognizing also that our adet (cultural norms), the essence of our identity, and our connection to ancestral land is embedded in our language.
A machine learning approach to network security anomaly detection
(2025) Verma, Prateek; Yang, Hong-Chuan
Supervised machine learning has emerged as a highly effective technique for classification in anomaly-based cyber-threat detection systems due to its predictability, and high accuracy. This work utilizes the CICIDS2017 dataset which is widely recognized as a benchmark for anomaly detection research. The work begins with the idea to implement a two-layered ML-based detection model. The proposed system’s first layer performs binary classification to differentiate benign from malicious traffic, while a secondary, multi-class classification system identifies specific attack types to implement targeted countermeasures. Incremental Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique and Synthetic Minority Oversampling (SMOTE) is applied to balance the dataset, critical for both binary and multi-class classification tasks. Among all evaluated machine learning models, LightGBM achieved superior performance with 99% accuracy, 98.1% F1-score, and minimal resource usage, outperforming traditional methods like SVM, KNN, Random Forest and Decision Trees. Further feature reduction, guided by feature importance scores, led to an even more lightweight model while performance metrics such accuracy, recall, and F1-score, remained consistent or improved slightly within a margin of ±0.5% highlighting the stability and efficiency of the proposed approach. This proposed system demonstrates that advanced, resource-efficient supervised ML models such as LightGBM can significantly improve real-time threat detection while offering a scalable and cost-effective solution for future cybersecurity deployments.
A machine learning framework for malware triage
(2024) Danaeifard, Soroush; Traore, Issa; Woungang, Isaac
Every day, thousands of new malicious software emerge globally, posing threats to consumer devices, stealing private data, or inducing financial losses. The increasing number and sophistication of malware threats underscores the need for effective and efficient malware detection and triage schemes. Malware triage is a process used by cybersecurity professionals to quickly assess, prioritize, and respond to malware incidents. Effective malware triage requires a combination of automated tools, skilled personnel, and well-defined procedures to quickly and accurately respond to malware incidents, minimizing damage and recovery time.
A microfluidics device integrated with Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) for characterizing microplastics in aqueous samples
(2024) Vahidi, Mohsen; Akbari, Mohsen
Microplastic contamination is an emerging contaminant and concern that can be found all over the planet. These microplastics are often very tiny in size; therefore, they can readily pass though bedrock and infiltrate water bodies such as rivers, lakes, and seas. Whenever such environmental contamination occurs, the first step in order to address the issue is to characterize the contamination in order to define its origin. This project proposes a design of a microfluidic chip, which is integrated with a Surface Enhanced Raman Spectrometer to characterize microplastic particles in various aqueous solutions such as water. The proposed design is capable of sorting and collecting microplastics based on their size without any need for a membrane. It also has a flat architecture, which makes it easy to manufacture at a reasonable cost. SolidWorks was used for the computer aided design (CAD) of the microfluidic chip and COMSOL Multiphysics was utilized for computer aided engineering (CAE) calculation to verify the design. According to the calculations, this microfluidic chip is capable of size-based sorting of microplastics.
A performance evaluation of collective communication libraries
(2026) Srinivasan, Subiksha; Wu, Kui; Prakash Champati, Jaya
Collective communication operations such as AllGather and AlltoAll are fundamental to high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale machine learning workloads. Their performance, however, is tightly constrained by network structure, link latency, and bandwidth availability across modern multi-GPU and multi-node systems. As systems scale and become increasingly heterogeneous, traditional collective scheduling approaches, which often assume unrealistic symmetry in latency and topology, become ineffective. This project investigates Traffic Engineering for Collective Communication (TE-CCL), an optimization-based framework that formulates collective scheduling as a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem. TE-CCL explicitly incorporates link-level latency (α) into its scheduling formulation, enabling more realistic modelling of heterogeneous multi-fabric GPU clusters. This project examines how varying α across links affects routing decisions, epoch schedules, and solver behaviour. By introducing heterogeneous α values—rather than assuming a fixed latency across all links—the model adapts its schedules to prioritize low-latency paths, reduce hop count where beneficial, and capture realistic communication delays found in the cloud and datacenter clusters. This work provides an analysis of TE-CCL under latency variability, evaluating solver behaviour, schedule structures, and topology sensitivity across multiple cluster designs. The study highlights how α-aware scheduling reshapes the communication patterns selected by the solver and provides insights into when and why topology-regularity influences optimization stability. Overall, this investigation clarifies the importance of latency modelling in collective communication and offers guidance for extending TE-CCL toward more robust, topology-adaptive scheduling strategies for next-generation HPC and ML systems.
A prototype architecture for interactive 3D maps on the web
(2024) Liu, Ting; Coady, Yvonne
Virtual 3D city models offer detailed 3D representations of urban space and serve in various fields, such as urban planning, architecture, navigation, and environmental simulation. With the advancement of technologies such as photogrammetry and laser scanning, the scale of 3D city models has increased significantly, making it a challenge to transmit and visualize such large datasets for sharing purposes. The development of advanced web technologies and the emergence of WebGL has made it possible to render and share large-scale 3D city models on the Internet. In addition, the introduction of game engines has further enhanced the simulation and interactive functions of 3D GIS applications. In this project, the exploration focused on using and integrating WebGL-based rendering tools to visualize large 3D city models, providing a portal where users can navigate and interact with urban scenarios from different perspectives. The architecture utilized 3DCityDB for tiling and format conversion of 3D models, 3D Web Client/Cesium.js virtual globe for loading large-scale tiled data, and Babylon.js to achieve interactive functions and environmental simulation. A GridMap mechanism was proposed to solve the problem of loading a large number of models with geographic coordinates in the Babylon scene. Test results show that this mechanism can maintain effective loading efficiency. Especially when the size of the dataset grows significantly, loading time and memory consumption will not increase, and FPS can also be maintained at a high level to ensure smooth interaction. This study expands the feasibility of applying 3D GIS data in web-based game engines through enhanced interactivity and simulation.
A simulation platform for connected autonomous vehicles incorporating physical and communication simulators
(2024) Chen, Yuhao; Cai, Lin
This project report provides a holistic record of the development of a connected autonomous vehicle simulation framework incorporating a physics simulator and a communication simulator. The development of this tool aims to help researchers in vehicle communication protocols to evaluate the simulated performance of their solutions in the physical world. By using this tool, communication researchers can observe the impact of their communication protocols on the actual connected autonomous vehicle operation process without the need to delve into the underlying logic of vehicle kinematic simulation. They only need to configure simple parameters and deploy their own protocols on the communication simulator and see the effect. This project report will start by introducing the components and operating principles of the entire system, and then demonstrate its usage through a simple simulation example.
Aboriginal Fathers: rebuilding our identity
(2016-10-06) McVey, Wes; Ball, Dr. Jessica; Hart, Dr. John
The negative effects of colonialism in Aboriginal communities in Canada have been well documented since Europeans first arrived and began evaluating people they did not understand. This has negatively affected more than reflected those communities, and has led to important omissions in Western knowledge. Interrupting the ongoing and systemic exclusion of Aboriginal peoples from knowledge production includes acknowledging Aboriginal people as leaders in documenting successes in their communities - like the development of a unique “Aboriginal Fathers Engagement Program” (AFEP) in the Central Okanagan of British Columbia. As a partner in such a documentation project, I have been informed by a culturally grounded research protocol that is based on meaningful participation of the community. Through this I have been led primarily by practitioners and participants within the AFEP. Documenting the program's development, along with the experiences of participants and practitioners within it, has the potential to improve responsiveness of services, increase research capacity, and facilitate the access to funding at local levels. It may also lead to a replication of this success in other communities, and contribute to a shift in paradigm and knowledge further abroad: towards a growing recognition and validation of Indigenous ways of caring for children, and of knowing.
Abstract and Metaphoric visualization of emotionally sensitive data
(2022-04-28) Malik, Mona
Standard visualizations such as bar charts and scatterplots, especially those representing qualitative, emotionally sensitive issues, fail to build a connection between the data that the visualization represents and the viewer of the visualization. To address this challenge, the information visualization community has become increasingly interested in exploring creative visualization techniques that could potentially help viewers relate to the suffering and pain in emotionally sensitive data. We contribute to this open question by investigating whether visualizations that rely on metaphors (i.e., that involve existing mental images such as a tree or a person image) with some emotional connection can foster viewers’ empathy and engagement with the data. Specifically, we conducted an empirical study in which we compare the effect of visualization type (metaphoric and abstract) on people’s engagement and empathy when exposed to emotionally sensitive data (data about sexual harassment in academia). We designed a metaphoric visualization that relies on the metaphor of a flower symbolizing life, beauty, and fragility which might help the viewers to relate to the victim, build some emotional connection, and an abstract visualization that relies on purely geometric forms with which people should not have any existing emotional connection. In our study, we found no clear difference in engagement and empathy between metaphoric and abstract visualization. Our findings indicate that female participants were slightly more engaged and empathic with both visualizations compared to other participants. Additionally, we learned that measuring empathy in a data visualization is a complex task. Informed by these findings on how people engage and empathize with metaphoric and abstract visualization, newer and improved visualization and experiences can be developed for similar emotionally sensitive topics that are emotionally charged and fear-provoking.
Access to child and youth mental health services in BC: Barriers, recommendations, and strategies for improvement
(2017-04-28) Cox, Julia; Artz, Sibylle
This report summarizes a literature review for the Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD) focusing on strategies for improving access to Child and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) services, supports, and treatment. Research consisted of a review of publicly available academic, grey, and policy literature produced since 2011, in order to answer two research questions: 1) What are the barriers to accessing CYMH services in BC, and what steps have been taken to overcome them? a. What are the system-level barriers to accessing CYMH services in BC? b. What strategies have been recommended to address these barriers? c. How have these strategies been implemented? 2) Where barriers remain, what strategies can be used to address them? The literature review is organized into two sections. The first is a review of reported system-level barriers, recommendations, and actions related to improving access to CYMH services in the BC context. The second is a scoping review of academic and grey literature describing and assessing evidence for various strategies for improving access to CYMH services. Access improvement strategies can be divided into service management strategies including waitlist management, increasing engagement, centralized intake, and collaborative care; and service delivery strategies including brief therapy, technology-based delivery methods, and emerging delivery models. Additionally, there is a brief discussion of literature regarding the implementation of two child and youth mental health service transformation models, the Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) and Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, also known as headspace. An appendix consisting of an annotated bibliography of access improvement literature is included. Results of the literature review indicate that barriers to accessing mental health services for children, youth, and families are identified in reviews such as those commissioned by Government (e.g., Berland, 2008), by oversight bodies (e.g., Representative for Children and Youth, 2013), and by parliamentary committees (e.g., Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth, 2016). System-level barriers to CYMH services in BC include long wait times, a fragmented system that is difficult to navigate, and services that are inadequate, inappropriate, or nonexistent in some areas. Consistent with Government’s strategic plans (e.g., Ministry of Health Services, & Ministry of Children and Family Development, 2010), MCFD has taken steps to improve access to CYMH services, including opening walk-in intake clinics, developing an online inventory and map of services, supporting direct system navigation and peer support, expanding the use of videoconferencing services, and developing Youth to Adult Mental Health Transition Protocols. These initiatives align with many of the formal recommendations from the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth and the Representative for Children and Youth. Research in child and youth mental health services is not well developed, and while there are many strategies in use, few have been shown to be effective in improving access. The approaches that show the most promise include collaborative care, centralized intake, brief therapy, peer support, some computerized CBT programs, and offering tele-mental health via telephone or videoconferencing. The CAPA service transformation model has demonstrated success in reducing wait times, and the headspace model has improved access for many groups of young people, but not all. Many of the strategies identified in the literature as having the potential to positively impact access to child and youth mental health services have been more extensively researched in the context of primary care and/or adult mental health care; additional research into the efficacy of their application in child and youth mental health contexts is needed before the evidence base will be strong enough to inform policy decisions.
Achieving Quality of Service in Medium Scale Network Design Using Differentiated Services
(2016-09-21) Khan, Usama; Gebali, Dr. Fayez
Quality of service (QoS) means packets are classified and sent to the destination based on the priority of the packet. Before the advent of this standard data packets were sent on a standard namely "Best effort". In this standard packets were sent on the policy of first come and fi rst serve basis without providing reliability, maximum throughput, and latency. This often results congestion on the router due to the load of Queue, packets were dropped due to congestion issues. The rise of multimedia application defines a need for a new standard which guarantees bandwidth with low delay and jitter. Multimedia applications like VoIP, Video conferencing are delay sensitive and cannot survive on the "Best effort" therefore we require some sort of differentiators that can detect these different types and appropriately prioritize and queue them for the effective transmission and this transmission is achieved with a new standard known as Quality of Service (QoS). Quality of Service is achievable by different types namely RSVP, RSVP-TE, MPLS and differentiated services. The main objective of this project is to explain how a medium scale network can be redesigned to implement quality of service within the network. Real-time simulations are obtained for multiple performance factors and implemented into a sample network to achieve the desired results.
Actions speak louder than words?: investigate the relationship between bullying and cyberbullying and deal with school bullying through SEL programs
(2018-05-11) Li, Zhao; Filler, Chris
With the popularization of the internet and other electronic devices among adolescents, cyberbullying has become a severe threat to teenagers’ well-being. Scholars debate the relationships between cyberbullying and bullying. The project aims to define the essence of cyberbullying and clarify its relationship with face-to-face bullying through reviewing previous studies. The findings are inclined to the statement that cyberbullying is an extension of traditional bullying, which results from negative personal emotions and interpersonal interactions. With this hypothesis, the focus of this current project is to improve teenagers’ real-life relationships with their peers. By examining the characteristics of students involved in bullying, their lack of social and emotional competencies is recognized. As a result, the primary objective of the project is to improve students’ social and emotional competencies. To achieve the target, one anti-bullying Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program is designed to develop students’ social and emotional skills through pet-owner relationships.
Adapt for success: Supporting multilingual learners in Canadian classrooms
(2025) Dubinina, Aleksandra; Anderson, Tim; Tobin, Ruthanne
In today’s multicultural classrooms in Canada, there is a growing need for content teachers to understand the intricacies of working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners and being prepared to employ teaching strategies and offer teaching resources that create an inclusive environment where all learners have equal chances to succeed. Drawing from teaching approaches like Communicative Language Teaching, Content-Based Instruction, Sheltered Instruction, and Culturally Responsive Teaching, this project presents a professional development workshop tailored for pre-service content teachers and ELL specialists. This workshop aims to develop abilities in teaching and supporting multilingual learners in the mainstream classrooms. The workshop provides a general understanding of the scaffolding and differentiation as core strategies designed to help teachers effectively teach multilingual learners in content areas while promoting language development and fostering supportive classroom environment.
Adapting Metro Vancouver's Transportation System to be Senior-Friendly
(2019-01-10) Williams, Stephanie; Siemens, Lynne
Objectives: The objective of this project is to determine ways in which Metro Vancouver’s transportation system can be adapted to be senior-friendly. Metro Vancouver is experiencing an aging population and will need a transportation system which addresses this (Canada, 2017; Turcotte, 2012). A lack of options to get around has multiple implications for seniors, including isolation, declines in physical and mental health, and a risk of driving beyond ability (Munro, 2016). To address social isolation in seniors, Seniors on the Move was developed, one of four projects within Allies in Aging, a three year federally-funded Collective Impact project in Metro Vancouver (Williams, 2016a). The author of this paper is coordinating Seniors on the Move. Methodology: This paper utilizes both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data is used in the form of focus groups results from seniors’ experiences with transportation in Metro Vancouver, and through digital storytelling from videos produced by South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. Quantitative and qualitative data is used throughout the literature review, which pulls from the fields primarily of geography, gerontology, and population health. The literature review begins with the current ways seniors get around, and then is broken down into each mode of transportation and how each can be better suited for the needs of seniors. A systems analysis is used to look not only at the parts of the system, but how they interact and might be changed (P. Morgan, 2005). Meadows (1999) leverage points are used to analyze where the most effort should be placed on changing the system, and how hard it will be, applied to the context of the Metro Vancouver transportation system. Final recommendations are then made using this analysis, including the identification of stakeholders who may need to be involved. Themes: The results from the literature review, the findings from the Seniors Advisory Committee of Seniors on the Move, and from the digital storytelling from seniors at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, was grouped within the 5 A’s of senior-friendly transportation, availability, acceptability, accessibility, adaptability and affordability (The Beverly Foundation Legacy, n.d.). Strategic Analysis: Using Meadows' (1999) paper on leverage points to analyze which parts of the system can be changed to have the greatest impact, changing numbers through taxes or subsidies, such as eliminating fares for seniors on public transit, can be seen to have little impact. Likewise, adding capacity to increase reliability and flexibility of HandyDART, public transit, volunteer ride programs and taxis, will be helpful, but not the most effective for the cost involved. Improving the built environment and not adding capacity for more cars can change the structure of cities, the 10th leverage point. Decreasing the delay in feedback by building now for an aging population will be effective at leverage point nine, but hard to do. Using negative feedback by increasing the cost of driving and taking space away from cars is feasible and will make other options more attractive. Creating positive feedback to increase acceptance of sustainable transportation through increasing the senior-friendliness of public transit, walking and cycling is leverage point seven, effective and feasible. The sixth leverage point is increasing information flows about transportation to the public and between policy-makers and stakeholders and is feasible. Changing the rules of the system by giving people walking, cycling and taking transit the right of way over those driving, will be necessary and effective at leverage point five. Likewise, leverage point four is changing the structure of the system to prioritize people walking, cycling and taking transit, which will be effective and somewhat feasible. The third leverage point, changing the goals of the system to focus less on getting people to work by car, will be hard to achieve, but very effective to making Metro Vancouver’s transportation system senior-friendly. The most effective leverage point for the purposes of this paper, a paradigm shift, will also be the hardest to achieve in the time frame required. Recommendations: Continue developing and expand transit training to reach more seniors Increase coordination and information flows between all transportation stakeholders and decision-makers Require taxi and ride-sourcing companies (when regulated) to have a greater percentage of accessible vehicles on the road at one time to increase their availability and implement a tax on all trips Increase availability of volunteer ride programs Implement more senior-friendly shuttles to bridge the gap between HandyDART and conventional transit Change the process of Driver Medical Exams for those over the age of 80 Adapt the built environment to be senior-friendly Implement graduated de-licensing, based on ability Increase integrated, senior-friendly land use and transportation planning Change the rules of the road to prioritize vulnerable road users.

Browse

Browsing Master's Projects by Title

Results Per Page

Sort Options