BEST has partnered with DiverseCity in Surrey with financial sponsorship from the Real Estate Foundation of BC and the Vancouver Foundation to create the Living Streets project.

Adapted from a similar program in Scotland, the Living Streets project educates and trains members of the community in conducting neighborhood street audits which will support the development of safe streets and enhance the feasibility of walking and cycling. This is a very effective tool for local people to assess their chosen route, identify issues and decide how they would like them to improve.

BEST is looking for people like YOU who are interested in becoming street auditors in the Surrey area.

Community members will be trained in and undertake street audits in various Surrey neighborhoods, and will provide the results as input to design charettes attended by Surrey municipal planners and officials. The charettes will identify a variety of solutions that local residents view as ways to improve neighborhood safety for walking and cycling. It will facilitate open communication, and sharing of ideas between residents and City of Surrey staff.

BEST is also looking for more organizations and individuals who would be interested in donating to this program in order to support and promote the transformation of communities and neighborhoods.

If you are interested in donating or becoming a street auditor please contact Anjela Godber at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

HSBC Clean Air Achievers is a curriculum based program for students in Grades 6-9. The program explores transportation choices and its impact on air quality, climate change and health. HSBC/CAA uses Canada's top national team, Olympic, and Paralympic athletes to deliver the message of sustainable transportation and ways that we can all reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Students are able to enter their travel trips onto the HSBC/CAA web site, and calculate the GHG emissions they have saved by choosing sustainable modes of travel. The goal is to reduce students reliance on automobiles, and increase their level of physical activity through active transportation modes, such as walking, cycling and rolling.

To invite the program into your classroom, contact Anjela Godber at BEST.

Clogged transportation arteries, bloated carbon footprints, difficulty breathing, muscular weakness and atrophy, dependence, addiction, danger to children on the streets, accidents, injury, and malnourished wallets are just a few of the symptoms of the plague of AutoObesity throughout Metro Vancouver and beyond.

It's no secret that AutoObesity is a disease. BEST has a solution.

With about 85 percent of households owning a car, and more than half or those owning two or more motor vehicles, and close to 60 percent of automobile trips taken for short distances that could comfortably be made by active transportation methods, there is ample room for slimming down of the automobile variety.

BEST's AutoObesity program is the urban version Mobility Matters which is more oriented to neighbourhoods in other Metro Vancouver municipalities that do not have the transit infrastructure of the urban core.

With personal motor vehicles being major contributors to green house gases, with cars eating up on average close to 20 per cent of household budgets, and with growing health concerns and costs due to inactivity, there's no better time to get "Auto Fit" than right now.

Check out the details of charitable tax receipts, benefits, incentives, and savings you can get for that excess auto on our Stop Auto Obesity pages.

BEST's "June is Bike Month" has grown to icon status in the years it has been operating. Every year, thousands of cyclists participate in events all through Metro Vancouver, celebrating cycling as  fun, healthy, inspiring, and just a great way to get around.

Yet research shows that over the past several years, overall, the number of cyclists has remained relatively constant, increasing in some parts of Metro Vancouver while decreasing in others. The same research identifies safety and the perception of safety as on of the top issues that keeps cyclists from riding more, and from irregular cyclists adopting bicycles as a viable transportation mode.

For that reason, Bike Month 2010 will feature large safety component aimed at educating cyclist about safe cycling, drivers about safe driving behaviour around cyclists, and cyclists about safety with respect to pedestrians. We're expanding the team of Bike Month supporters--along with traditional supporters such as Translink and Municipalities like Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam and Surrey, we're partnering with other groups to ensure maximum penetration of messages and events. We're working the the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition to see that the safety message gets out and safety courses get taught in participating municipalities. We're working with the BCAA n getting the driver safety message out, and with the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and HASTE regarding cycling safety to and from schools.

Safe cycling generates more cyclists, and having more cyclists is in itself a major method of improving safety. The more cyclists there are, the safer everyone is. Bike month 2010 will look to make that happen. As we gear up for that, you'll be able to list your upcoming cycling events, share your own safety tips and stories, download safe cycling guides and more.