1. Overall health impacts of a potential increase in cycle commuting in Stockholm, Sweden
- Author
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Johan Nilsson Sommar, Magnus Strömgren, Peter Schantz, Bertil Forsberg, Boel Lövenheim, Christer Johansson, Anders Markstedt, and Helena Stigson
- Subjects
Transportteknik och logistik ,Health impact ,air pollution ,Physical activity ,Air pollution ,physical activity ,Transportation ,010501 environmental sciences ,medicine.disease_cause ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Environmental health ,Air Pollution ,medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,traffic injuries ,Transport Systems and Logistics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Sweden ,DALY ,Study Registry ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Scenario ,General Medicine ,Bicycling ,Geography ,Work (electrical) ,health impact assessment ,transport ,TRIPS architecture ,bicycling ,Health impact assessment ,human activities - Abstract
Aims: To estimate the overall health impact of transferring commuting trips from car to bicycle. Methods: In this study registry information on the location of home and work for residents in Stockholm County was used to obtain the shortest travel route on a network of bicycle paths and roads. Current modes of travel to work were based on travel survey data. The relation between duration of cycling and distance cycled was established as a basis for selecting the number of individuals that normally would drive a car to work, but have a distance to work that they could bicycle within 30 minutes. The change in traffic flows was estimated by a transport model (LuTrans) and effects on road traffic injuries and fatalities were estimated by using national hospital injury data. Effects on air pollution concentrations were modelled using dispersion models. Results: Within the scenario, 111,000 commuters would shift from car to bicycle. On average the increased physical activity reduced the one-year mortality risk by 12% among the additional bicyclists. Including the number of years lost due to morbidity, the total number of disability adjusted life-years gained was 696. The amount of disability adjusted life-years gained in the general population due to reduced air pollution exposure was 471. The number of disability adjusted life-years lost by traffic injuries was 176. Also including air pollution effects among bicyclists, the net benefit was 939 disability adjusted life-years per year. Conclusions: Large health benefits were estimated by transferring commuting by car to bicycle.
- Published
- 2021