Commuting by cycling and walking allows people to build physical activity into their daily routine, providing the exercise needed for better health outcomes at any stage in life.
Participants experience the health benefits directly and immediately, from the actual increases in physical activity; our communities, meanwhile, benefit over time from the reductions in traffic congestion, injuries, localized air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
All of this results in healthier outcomes for everyone.
Realizing the Links
The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute found in a survey of Canadian Municipalities that “three in five communities report that an increase in the amount of walking, bicycling and multi‐purpose trails was the most pressing infrastructure need in their community to increase physical activity levels among citizens.”
That’s because we now understand the links between transportation and health, and the ability for integrated community planning and infrastructure engineering to exert a powerful influence over citizen’s access to economical, sustainable, and regenerative physical activity in their daily routines.
From the BC Healthy Living Alliance: “Research is increasingly demonstrating links between the built environment and eating and physical activity behaviours.”
Additional studies have shown that adults are 2.5 times more likely to engage in active transportation when living in compact and well connected neighbourhoods; they are also more likely to get the recommended amounts of daily physical activity.
Furthermore, we now know that neighbourhoods supporting active transportation are associated with reduced risk for obesity and reduced air pollution; one study found “a 5% increase in walkability to be associated with a per capita 32.1% increase in time spent in physically active travel, a 0.23-point reduction in body mass index, 6.5% fewer vehicle miles traveled, 5.6% fewer grams of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emitted, and 5.5% fewer grams of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted.”
The BC Ministry of Health’s ‘Healthy Families BC Policy Framework’ identifies seven evidence-based “best investments” for physical activity, which includes “transport policies and systems that prioritize walking, cycling and public transport.”
This builds on a report by the Provincial Health Services Authority finding that “there is a growing consensus among public health experts that supporting more physically active modes of transportation and better access to recreational opportunities offer the most effective ways to increase activity levels across the population, particularly among people who are overweight and/or inactive.”
The Economic Opportunity
Obesity costs $612M and inactivity costs $335M in direct healthcare expenditures annually in British Columbia.
The approximately 60 walking and cycling fatalities per year in BC are estimated to cost society $900 million.
As active transportation becomes increasingly popular, the infrastructure needed to facilitate these activities becomes increasingly critical.This establishes a logical connection between health and transportation and points to needed changes in policies and investments.
Building an active transportation network that meets the needs of British Columbians beyond the next ten years will require a significant increase in infrastructure funding. Other jurisdictions spend much more than BC is currently spending; the Netherlands, considered a global leader in cycling provides funding at $40/person/year and other jurisdictions have made similar investments: Winnipeg $32/person/year; Brisbane $51/person/year; London $27/person/year.