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City leaders talk health

Among diverse municipal concerns, the encouragement of better utilization of public transportation systems and promotion of physical exercise were two top priorities addressed yesterday, as 47 mayors and city representatives from around the world shared experiences and sought solutions to these issues.

On the second day of the International Healthy Cities Conference, participating city leaders met at the City Leaders Roundtable in Taipei to continue discussions of healthy-city issues. Prior to the roundtable, mayors and city representatives signed the "2005 Taipei Healthy City Declaration" as a strong commitment to improve the physical, socio-economic and environmental health of citizens.

As the host of the roundtable, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) encouraged other city leaders to address different issues concerning each city, as every city has a unique management style.

Many participating cities, including Scotland's capital Edinburgh, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Lilongwe (Malawi), addressed the importance of the establishment of public transportation and ways to encourage citizens to take good advantage of it.

Deputy Mayor of Edinburgh Steve Cardowni said the city has been trying to "get people out of their cars" and use public transport. One thing the city is planning is a "congestion-charge policy," which would require vehicles crossing the central area of the city to pay a ?2 (US$3.55) fee per day.

The policy, which is already in effect in London, was however turned down by voters in a referendum earlier this year. Cardowni said it may take years before citizens understand the benefits of the policy, but efforts to carry out the plan, as well as other measures such as park-and-ride schemes, will continue.

Morris Hanna, mayor of Marrickville in Australia, said the city has introduced "walk to work" and "walk to school" programs, encouraging people to adopt "pollution-free" and "healthy" alternatives to the sedentary lifestyle.

The "walk to school" program has also been introduced in Taipei along with the annual "Care Free Month" event. Other cities like Lilongwe have adopted similar alternative concepts.

Besides the transportation concern, Deputy Mayor of Turku (Finland), Kaija Hartiala, raised the physical-exercise issue. Taking her city as an example, Hartiala said that politicians have been promoting the exercise energetically. Good cooperation between the city government, community members and universities has successfully persuaded those who declined to do exercise out of "laziness" to start doing it for fun and get more healthy at the same time.

Ma agreed that "the laziness of people" is the most difficult part to overcome when promoting physical exercise in any city. He said that is why it is important for a city to make exercise facilities accessible and affordable to attract more people to enjoy exercising in a more convenient way.

"So the Taipei City Government has remodeled many community swimming pools and built jogging paths and bikeways around the city, so that there won't be any excuses for citizens not to exercise," he said.

The Healthy Cities Conference ends today.
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