[sustran] Taking public transit may help you keep fit

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=NLetter&id=ab2dd8cb-9b30-45d3-b178-2bef3d645a7f&Headline=Taking+public+transit+may+help+you+keep+fit

Taking public transit may help you keep fit

People may help themselves keep fit by taking public transit, if a new study
from the University of British Columbia is to be believed.

The university researchers found during the study that people who took
public transit are three times more likely to meet the Heart and Stroke
Foundation of Canada's suggested daily minimum of physical activity,
compared to those who did not.

Doctoral student Ugo Lachapelle and Associate Professor Lawrence Frank of
the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning have revealed that they
used 4,156 travel surveys from metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, to examine
whether transit and car trips were associated with meeting the recommended
levels of physical activity by walking.

The researchers say that the fact that transit trips by bus and train often
involve walking to and from stops increases the likelihood that people will
meet the recommended 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day, five
days a week.

According to them, people who drove the most were the least likely to meet
the recommended level of physical activity.

"The idea of needing to go to the gym to get your daily dose of exercise is
a misperception," says Frank, the J. Armand Bombardier Chairholder in
Sustainable Transportation and a researcher at the UBC Institute for
Resources, Environment and Sustainability.

"These short walks throughout our day are historically how we have gotten
our activity. Unfortunately, we''ve engineered this activity out of our
daily lives," the researcher adds.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that
making transit incentives more broadly available might produce indirect
health benefits by getting people walking, even if it was just in short
bouts.

"This should be appealing to policy makers because it's easier to promote
transit incentives - such as employer-sponsored passes or discount fares -
than to restructure existing neighbourhoods," says Frank.

Lachapelle believes that the findings of this study may have major
implications for urban planning and public transit development.

"You don't necessarily have to rebuild communities or make major investments
in infrastructure to promote public health. There are things we can do in
the interim, such as encourage people to drive less, and adapt their
lifestyles which will get people more physically active and generate fewer
greenhouse gasses," he says.

*The study has been published in the Journal of Public Health Policy.*
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