GETTING HEALTH BY HEALTHY TRANSPORT

Healthy transport means reducing

driving and encouraging more walking

and cycling, backed up by better public

transport.

(Source : WHO, The Solid Fact, 1998.)

The evidence

Cycling, walking and the use of public transport

promote health in four ways. They provide

exercise, reduce fatal accidents, increase social

contact and reduce air pollution.

Because mechanization has reduced the exercise

involved in jobs and house work, people need to

find new ways of building exercise into their lives.

This can be done by reducing the reliance on cars,

increasing walking and cycling and expanding

public transport. Regular exercise protects against

heart disease and, by limiting obesity, reduces the

onset of diabetes. It promotes a sense of

wellbeing and protects older people from

depression.

Reducing road traffic would reduce the toll of

road deaths and serious accidents. Although

accidents involving cars injure cyclists and

pedestrians, those involving cyclists injure

relatively few people. Well planned urban

environments, which separate cyclists and

pedestrians from car traffic, increase the safety of

cycling and walking.

More cycling and walking, plus greater use of

public transport, would stimulate social

interaction on the streets, where cars have

insulated people from each other. Road traffic

separates communities and divides one side of

the street from the other. Fewer pedestrians mean

that streets cease to be social spaces, so that

isolated pedestrians often fear attack. Further,

suburbs that depend on cars for access isolate

people without cars, particularly the young and

old. Social isolation and lack of community

interaction are strongly associated with poorer

health.

Reduced road traffic means decreasing harmful

pollution from exhaust. Walking and cycling make

minimal use of non-renewable fuels and do not

lead to global warming. They do not create

disease from air pollution, make little noise and

are preferable for the ecologically compact cities

of the future. Bicycles, which can be

manufactured locally, have a good “ecological

footprint” – in contrast to cars.

Policy implications

Despite their health-damaging effects, journeys

by car are rising rapidly in all European countries,

while journeys by foot or bicycle are falling.

National and local public policies must reverse

these trends. Yet transport lobbies have strong

vested interests. Many industries – oil, rubber,

road building, car manufacturing, sales and

repairs, and advertising – benefit from the use of

cars. Just as the twentieth century has seen a start

made on reducing addiction to tobacco, alcohol

and drugs, so the twenty-first century must see a

reduction in people’s dependence on cars.

Roads should give precedence to cycling and

walking for short journeys, especially in towns.

Public transport should be improved for longer

for rural areas. Incentives need to be changed;

this means, for example, reducing state subsidies

for road building, increasing financial support for

public transport, creating tax disincentives for the

business use of cars and increasing the costs and

penalties of parking. Changes in land use are also

needed, such as: converting road space into green

spaces, removing car parking spaces, dedicating

roads to the use of pedestrians and cyclists,

increasing bus and cycle lanes, and stopping the

growth of low-density suburbs and out-of-town

supermarkets, which increase the use of cars.

Increasingly, the evidence suggests that building

more roads encourages more car use, while traffic

restrictions may, contrary to expectations, reduce

congestion.journeys, with regular and frequent connections