Feature Article 24 March 2000

The Health Benefits of Non-motorised Modes of Transport

Special to Carfree Times

"In order to improve public health, national governments should develop and implement strategies to stimulate daily cycling. It is the most effective way to save billions of funds in the health sector and solve traffic and environmental problems at the same time."

Transport policies could play a key role in promoting health, publicly and individually, by promoting non-motorised modes of transport, such as walking and cycling. Both are not purely modes of transport but also forms of physical activity and as such can enhance individual's health and improve their well being. Collectively they can decrease pollutant emissions and reduce accident rates, provided some facilities are made available to minimise the conflict between those modes of transport and motorised traffic.

In Australia the Government estimated that if 40% of its 20 million people exercised regularly the general benefits - through savings in the health sector - would be around 6.5 million Australian dollars a day. This figure would be equivalent to 2.4 billion Australian dollars annually, or 10% of the total national health budget.

However, it seems to be a vicious circle in which people are discouraged to cycle and walk more often due to high traffic flows and high speeds, that leads to an unsafe road environment producing fear, which ultimately "pushes" more and more people off the roads and to drive their cars, so they can feel more "protected" and "safer" in this threatening environment. How can this circle be broken, if at all?

Engineers, doctors and health professionals should unite their efforts to promote the potential these modes of transport could offer in improving individual and collective health and ultimately to improve overall quality of life.

The advantages of cycling and walking are numerous. Walking is the only mode of transport available to the majority of the population. It is, like cycling, a non-polluting mode and it is highly efficient in use of both the urban space and energy.

Cycling is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get fit and is often the fastest and the most reliable way to get around in cities.

While walking can easily cater for short and local trips, cycling could suit perfectly to journeys of up to 10 km in length. They could both substitute a great deal of short car journeys in our cities. In the UK alone 72% of all journeys are made by car of which 59% are less than 8 km in length. These shorter journeys are the most polluting ones and could be very easily shifted to cycling, public transport or walking.

In 1992, the British Medical Association published a comprehensive report on the health risks due to high accident rates and their severity among cyclists and the benefits of cycling. The report concluded that even in the current hostile road environment, the benefits gained from regular cycling - reduction in coronary heart disease, obesity and hypertension as well as increasing overall fitness level - were likely to outweigh the loss of lives through cycling accidents involving regular cyclists.

One study, among factory workers, concluded that regular cyclists enjoyed fitness levels equivalent to that of individuals ten years younger while another found that those who cycled 100 kilometers a week from the age of 35 could expand their life expectancy by two years.

What can be done to encourage more cycling and walking in our cities? There are many barriers to cycling and to some extent walking in our built environment - the major deterrent being the real and perceived risk of accidents and their severity due to the conflict with high-speed motorised traffic.

The modal share of the bike is still low - on average only 5% of all trips within EU member states are made by bike. However in some countries its participation is as high as 18% in Denmark and 27% in the Netherlands and the population cycle on average 850 km a year, showing that more cyclists on the roads do not mean more accidents, on the contrary. Where cycle culture is strong, there is much more respect for their users. In Groningen (in the Netherlands), 50% of all trips in the city centre are made by bicycle.

Cycle use has been boosted significantly in some European cities such as Basle, Graz, Hannover, Münster and Delft, where traffic conflicts have been minimised mainly through engineering measures such as traffic calming schemes to reduce traffic flow speeds and the implementation of dedicated cycle lanes to minimise the conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles.

The current transport system does not encourage or enable people to cycle and walk regularly or as much as they want to. It is clear that cycling and walk retain a great potential both as modes of transport and as means of promoting individual and public health. They could easily substitute short car journeys in cities and towns and make the environment safer and more attractive for all.