Active travel: a New Year’s resolution everyone can stick to

Transport is among the key issues determining whether a person leads a healthy life, says Dr Jon Lamonte, Chief Executive, Transport for Greater Manchester and lead Urban Transport Group Board member for health

January – the time for fresh starts, a time when many of us will be resolving to get healthy – to go to the gym every day after work perhaps, or to join that running club. These good intentions can be hard to sustain as the winter chill draws you indoors towards box sets and comfort food. Fortunately, there is a way to boost your physical activity level without breaking too much of a sweat. It could be as simple as changing the way you travel.

Transport is among the key issues determining whether a person leads a healthy life. Physically active modes of transport – walking and cycling, combined with public transport – offer an alternative to the sedentary lifestyles that cars encourage. They are among the cheapest, most accessible ways of getting active and are easily incorporated into daily routines (and therefore more likely to be sustained throughout 2017 and beyond).

A study by Mindlab found that walking as part of a return trip by bus provided up to half the recommended daily level of exercise (the NHS recommends 30 minutes per day, five days a week). Study participants walked for an average of 15 minutes when taking a return journey by bus, two and a half times more than when taking the same journey by car.

The links between transport and health are far wider than physical activity alone. Transport connects people to healthcare and health-promoting activities and helps people to stay active and independent for longer. The transport choices we make also affect air quality and our mental wellbeing.

The links between transport and health are far wider than physical activity alone. Transport connects people to healthcare and health-promoting activities and helps people to stay active and independent for longer. The transport choices we make also affect air quality and our mental wellbeing

It is encouraging, therefore, that these connections are being increasingly recognised and acted upon at national and local level. 

Nationally, the Department for Transport (DfT) and Public Health England (PHE) jointly promoted the Sustainable Transport Transition Year Fund. Meanwhile, PHE’s ‘Everybody Active Every Day’ framework highlights the importance of creating transport systems that help shape active, healthy and liveable communities. The fact that the Sustainable Transport and Health Summit is supported by both the DfT and NHS England is testament to this joined-up thinking.

At local level, Urban Transport Group (UTG) commissioned research with Directors of Public Health across the country and found that collaboration between transport and health departments has increased since public health returned to top-tier local government (you can read more about this research in ‘A Healthy Relationship: Public health and transport collaboration in local government’ available on the UTG website).

However, as with those New Year’s resolutions, these connections need to be nurtured and sustained over the long-term. With urgent public health challenges around physical inactivity, strain on the NHS and health problems associated with poor air quality coming at a time when budgets are constrained across the public sector, there is still more to be done to build on and fully realise the potential synergies and savings that could be gained by closer working between health and transport. The Sustainable Transport and Health Summit will showcase what can be achieved when we work together to make active travel the first choice for getting from A to B as well as the easy option for being more active, every day in 2017 and for life.

Dr Jon Lamonte is speaking at the Sustainable Transport + Health Summit at Bristol City Hall on the 24 February