- Transport and Health
- It’s true that Holland is very flat, but it’s not just the flatness that encourages people to cycle. Until 1975 transport patterns were similar to the UK – people getting into cars as they became more prosperous. Since 1975 there has been serious and sustained investment in cycling facilities, especially in segregated cycle lanes and high density bike parking at stations. It’s fear that stops most people cycling. Road accidents involving cyclists get news coverage. But actually the big danger is not cycling.One study found that people who cycle to work experienced a 39% lower rate of all-cause mortality compared to those who did not – even
after adjustment for other risk factors, including leisure time physical activity. Professor Jerry Morris discovered in first study on this subject in the 1950s found that bus conductors (who were occupationally physically active) had far lower rates of heart disease than bus drivers (who were more occupationally sedentary), despite similar backgrounds.Physical activity is associated with improved subjective well-being, mood and emotions. These effects are seen within all age groups and are independent of socio-economic or health status.
- Promoting walking and cycling as an alternative to using cars: systematic review BMJ 2004
- BusinessCycle
- Campaign for Better Transport
- Cyclenation
- CTC working for cycling
- Cycling and health (CTC)
- Cycling and risk – Ben Goldacre
- Cycling England (an archive site – it was abolished in 2011)
- The dangers of cycling
- Get Walking
- Healthy Transport
- Living Streets
- New to Cycling
- Ramblers’ Association
- School parking ban to tackle fat crisis 2009
- Scottish Transport Studies Group
- Sustrans
- Transport and Health Study Group
- Value for money: An economic assessment of investment in walking and cycling
- Walking meeting in Manchester April 2001
- Walking the way to Health Initiative
- The wider costs of transport in English urban areas in 2009
“ Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.” Plato