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Transport, Physical Activity and Health: Present knowledge and the way ahead (UK)

This research paper by Roger L Mackett and Belinda Brown, Centre for Transport Studies, University College London was released in December 2011. It contains a review of the literature in the field of transport and physical activity. It was funded by the Department for Transport.

This report shows that there is a large body of evidence about ways of increasing walking and cycling through a variety of measures. There is sufficient evidence available to pursue some of the initiatives now. However, it would be useful to carry out further research into a number of areas, particularly into ways of meeting the perceived accessibility needs of car users and their households, how to make alternatives methods of car access besides owning one or more cars more attractive and effective, understanding of the analytical relationships between the various modes, and significant improvements to the modelling and appraisal framework including more explicit representation of walking and cycling and their benefits.

The main findings of this report are:

• Walking and cycling have key contributions to make to improving health through increasing physical activity;
• In order to increase walking and cycling it is important to reduce car use;
• Behaviour change is required to encourage a shift from the car to walking and cycling; evidence from health research shows that this is likely to be more effective in a supportive social environment;
• Modifications to the physical environment will not increase physical activity significantly unless supported by other measures;
• Changing the economics of car use towards a system that encourages a more rational consideration of modal choice should encourage a reduction in car use;
• A more rational form of household access to cars would involve the use of car clubs, neighbourhood car rental and car sharing; This approach could be complemented by measures such as congestion charging, pay-as-you-go car insurance and transferring road space from car use to walking and cycling;
• When schemes such as new shopping centres, hospitals and schools are being developed, the journeys of the potential users should be taken into consideration in the decision-making process;
•  It would be very useful to have a wide debate about transport modelling to ensure that the models represent travel and locational behaviour effectively, including factors that represent physical activity; the discussion should include the cost effectiveness of making changes to the existing modelling system;
• The incorporation of more findings from research into the financial benefits of improvements to health resulting from more physical activity would improve the appraisal process for new transport schemes;
• Many benefits would arise from health and transport professionals working together more, for example, by sharing knowledge of the evidence about the impact of walking and cycling schemes;
• Further research would help in the shift towards a healthier, more sustainable future, but action to improve the quality of life by increasing walking and cycling can be taken now.

There would need to be a change of philosophy about investment in transport schemes, with a shift from an overall objective of increasing economic efficiency to one of increasing wellbeing, including health so that the contribution of walking and cycling to health would be more explicitly recognised in scheme appraisal. This would need to be accompanied by a paradigm shift in the approach to modelling so that the models are sensitive to a much broader range of changes in travel behaviour than the present methodology. There would also need to be a shift in the evaluation procedure used for schemes such as retail developments, hospitals and schools so that the travel demands of the users (customers, patients and their visitors, and pupils) and are taken into account in decisions about new locations.

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