As many countries ease their lockdowns and more people return to work, there’s an effort to limit the use of public transport to avoid further spread of COVID-19. One way to do that is to encourage more people to switch to physically active ways of commuting such as walking or cycling.
Health Benefits
We found that, compared with those who drove, people who cycled to work had a 20 percent lower risk of death overall. They also had a 24 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 16 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. And they were 11 percent less likely to be diagnosed with cancer. This even held true after we took account of other factors, such as age, sex, car access, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group.Walking to work was associated with a 7 percent lower risk of cancer diagnosis compared with driving. However, it was unclear what impact walking to work had on rates of death from cancer and heart disease.
This may be because the people we looked at who walked to work were on average less well off and were more likely to have a long-term illness and this may have countered the positive effects of walking. However, the data may not have had enough detail to fully capture these differences.
We also found that, compared with those who drove to work, rail commuters also had a 10 percent lower risk of death overall. They had a 21 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and a 12 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This is likely because many rail commuters need to walk or cycle to transit points.
Again our data showed that rail commuters also tend to be more well off and less likely to have other underlying health conditions, which might not be fully accounted for in the analyses.
Our research also looked at whether the benefits of active commuting differed between occupations, comparing those in higher managerial or professional positions in more junior or intermediate roles, as well as people who worked manual jobs. We found that the potential health benefits were similar across these groups.
We know that there are inequalities in health and travel patterns between socioeconomic groups. Our study indicates that promoting active travel might lead to positive health benefits regardless of background or occupation.
Friends Read Free