The local Health Unit's In Motion program is looking for county support and provincial grant money to help get more people in Wellington active.
The group hopes to develop an Active Community plan by next year that would show how to make communities in Wellington County more friendly to human-powered transport.
Funding for the $60,000 plan would come from the grant, $25,000 from Wellington County, and $2,000-$3,000 from each of the seven county municipalities, Centre Wellington parks and recreation director Andy Goldie told county councillors at a special Aug. 12 meeting.
He also asked the county to look after tendering the contract for the plan and overseeing the consultant.
The deadline for the grant application was Aug. 16, just four days after the county council meeting, the Health Unit's Karen Armstrong said.
Local streets aren't very friendly to human-powered transportation, Armstrong said. Sidewalks - where they exist - are often bumpy and uneven. In other places, cyclists and pedestrians are forced onto the road surface or have to contend with gravelled road shoulders.
"Our risk of obesity goes up six percent for every hour we spend in a car per day," she said. "But it goes done five percent for every kilometre we walk."
Every year a high school student spends driving or taking a bus to school, ads an average of two extra pounds in weight, she said. And if many of those students got off the bus and walked, school boards could save millions in transportation costs.
There's also a benefit to older people, Armstrong said. With 48 percent of seniors lacking a vehicle, a lack of human-powered transportation routes "becomes a barrier to getting around."
Paving shoulders for bicycle lanes actually helps road construction, she said - it moves the paved edge of the roadway further from vehicle traffic, creates more roadbed support for the driving lanes, and moves water runoff further out.
"Communities all around us have developed or are developing active transportation plans," she said. "Now we're looking for your support so we can go forward with an actual plan for Wellington."
Goldie said if the initiative goes ahead it's hoped work on the plan will start this fall and wrap up by October 2011.