Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 103, Issue 4, Pages 703-709Publisher
AMER PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOC INC
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300939
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Funding
- California Endowment
- Kaiser Permanente-Northern California Community Benefits Programs
- Public Health Institute
- Public Health Law and Policy (Oakland, CA)
- Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR)
- UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence
- British Heart Foundation
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Medical Research Council
- National Institute for Health Research
- Wellcome Trust under UK Clinical Research Collaboration
- ESRC [ES/G007462/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/G007462/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Objectives. We quantified health benefits of transportation strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). Methods. Statistics on travel patterns and injuries, physical activity, fine particulate matter, and GHGE in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, were input to a model that calculated the health impacts of walking and bicycling short distances usually traveled by car or driving low-emission automobiles. We measured the change in disease burden in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) based on dose-response relationships and the distributions of physical activity, particulate matter, and traffic injuries. Results: Increasing median daily walking and bicycling from 4 to 22 minutes reduced the burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes by 14% (32 466 DALYs), increased the traffic injury burden by 39% (5907 DALYS), and decreased GHGE by 14%. Low-carbon driving reduced GHGE by 33.5% and cardiorespiratory disease burden by less than 1%. Conclusions: Increased physical activity associated with active transport could generate a large net improvement in population health. Measures would be needed to minimize pedestrian and bicyclist injuries. Together, active transport and low-carbon driving could achieve GHGE reductions sufficient for California to meet legislative mandates.
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