The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared with car use: health impact assessment study

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Abstract

Objective To estimate the risks and benefits to health of travel by bicycle, using a bicycle sharing scheme, compared with travel by car in an urban environment.

Design Health impact assessment study.

Setting Public bicycle sharing initiative, Bicing, in Barcelona, Spain.

Participants 181 982 Bicing subscribers.

Main outcomes measures The primary outcome measure was all cause mortality for the three domains of physical activity, air pollution (exposure to particulate matter <2.5 µm), and road traffic incidents. The secondary outcome was change in levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

Results Compared with car users the estimated annual change in mortality of the Barcelona residents using Bicing (n=181 982) was 0.03 deaths from road traffic incidents and 0.13 deaths from air pollution. As a result of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided (benefit:risk ratio 77). The annual number of deaths avoided was 12.28. As a result of journeys by Bicing, annual carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by an estimated 9 062 344 kg.

Conclusions Public bicycle sharing initiatives such as Bicing in Barcelona have greater benefits than risks to health and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

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Most cited references 11

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Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: urban land transport.

James Woodcock, Phil Edwards, Cathryn Tonne … (2009)

We used Comparative Risk Assessment methods to estimate the health effects of alternative urban land transport scenarios for two settings-London, UK, and Delhi, India. For each setting, we compared a business-as-usual 2030 projection (without policies for reduction of greenhouse gases) with alternative scenarios-lower-carbon-emission motor vehicles, increased active travel, and a combination of the two. We developed separate models that linked transport scenarios with physical activity, air pollution, and risk of road traffic injury. In both cities, we noted that reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through an increase in active travel and less use of motor vehicles had larger health benefits per million population (7332 disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs] in London, and 12 516 in Delhi in 1 year) than from the increased use of lower-emission motor vehicles (160 DALYs in London, and 1696 in Delhi). However, combination of active travel and lower-emission motor vehicles would give the largest benefits (7439 DALYs in London, 12 995 in Delhi), notably from a reduction in the number of years of life lost from ischaemic heart disease (10-19% in London, 11-25% in Delhi). Although uncertainties remain, climate change mitigation in transport should benefit public health substantially. Policies to increase the acceptability, appeal, and safety of active urban travel, and discourage travel in private motor vehicles would provide larger health benefits than would policies that focus solely on lower-emission motor vehicles.

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Association of fine particulate matter from different sources with daily mortality in six U.S. cities.

F Laden, L Neas, D W Dockery … (2000)

Previously we reported that fine particle mass (particulate matter [less than and equal to] 2.5 microm; PM(2.5)), which is primarily from combustion sources, but not coarse particle mass, which is primarily from crustal sources, was associated with daily mortality in six eastern U.S. cities (1). In this study, we used the elemental composition of size-fractionated particles to identify several distinct source-related fractions of fine particles and examined the association of these fractions with daily mortality in each of the six cities. Using specific rotation factor analysis for each city, we identified a silicon factor classified as soil and crustal material, a lead factor classified as motor vehicle exhaust, a selenium factor representing coal combustion, and up to two additional factors. We extracted daily counts of deaths from National Center for Health Statistics records and estimated city-specific associations of mortality with each source factor by Poisson regression, adjusting for time trends, weather, and the other source factors. Combined effect estimates were calculated as the inverse variance weighted mean of the city-specific estimates. In the combined analysis, a 10 microg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5) from mobile sources accounted for a 3.4% increase in daily mortality [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.7-5.2%], and the equivalent increase in fine particles from coal combustion sources accounted for a 1.1% increase [CI, 0.3-2.0%). PM(2.5) crustal particles were not associated with daily mortality. These results indicate that combustion particles in the fine fraction from mobile and coal combustion sources, but not fine crustal particles, are associated with increased mortality.

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Non-vigorous physical activity and all-cause mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.

James Woodcock, Oscar Franco, Nicola Orsini … (2011)

Although previous studies have found physical activity to be associated with lower mortality, the dose-response relationship remains unclear. In this systematic review and meta-analysis we quantify the dose-response relationship of non-vigorous physical activity and all-cause mortality. We aimed to include all cohort studies in adult populations with a sample size of more than 10 000 participants that estimated the effect of different levels of light or moderate physical activity on all-cause mortality. We searched Medline, Embase, Cochrane (DARE), Web of Science and Global Health (June 2009). We used dose-response meta-regression models to estimate the relation between non-vigorous physical activity and mortality. We identified 22 studies that met our inclusion criteria, containing 977 925 (334 738 men and 643 187 women) people. There was considerable variation between the studies in their categorization of physical activity and adjustment for potential confounders. We found that 2.5 h/week (equivalent to 30 min daily of moderate intensity activity on 5 days a week) compared with no activity was associated with a reduction in mortality risk of 19% [95% confidence interval (CI) 15-24], while 7 h/week of moderate activity compared with no activity reduced the mortality risk by 24% (95% CI 19-29). We found a smaller effect in studies that looked at walking alone. Being physically active reduces the risk of all-cause mortality. The largest benefit was found from moving from no activity to low levels of activity, but even at high levels of activity benefits accrue from additional activity.

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Author and article information

Contributors

: Role: predoctoral researcher

: Role: researcher

: Role: research professor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMJ

Journal ID (publisher-id): bmj

Title: BMJ : British Medical Journal

Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

ISSN (Print): 0959-8138

ISSN (Electronic): 1468-5833

Publication date Collection: 2011

Publication date (Print): 2011

Publication date (Electronic): 04 August 2011

Volume: 343

Electronic Location Identifier: d4521

Affiliations

[1 ]Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, C Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

[2 ]Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) Barcelona

[3 ]CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) Madrid, Spain

[4 ]Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Newelska 6, 01-447 Warsaw, Poland, and Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland

Author notes

Correspondence to: D Rojas-Rueda drojas@ 123456creal.cat

Article

Publisher ID: rojd852889

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d4521

PMC ID: 3150633

PubMed ID: 21816732

SO-VID: be518f0b-ac2e-4739-8fd4-9dceba05a6ca

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared with car use: health impact assessment study

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Abstract

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Most cited references 11

Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: urban land transport.

Association of fine particulate matter from different sources with daily mortality in six U.S. cities.

Non-vigorous physical activity and all-cause mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.

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