Citation

Muukkonen P. Lancet Planet. Health 2023; 7(5): e356.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00054-2

PMID

37164510

Abstract

Carmen Jochem and Michael Leitzmann highlighted the importance of promoting active transportation in physical activity guidelines to improve public health and planetary hewalth. In addition to public health guidelines, active transportation has several concepts that should be pursued in parallel. The first concept is multimodality in transportation, which means that people use multiple modes of transportation during a trip, such as walking, cycling, public transportation, with shared mobility services such as bike sharing or car sharing, or other modes for different parts of their trip. Therefore, there is the need to create integrated and interconnected transportation systems that encourage individuals to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines while also reducing their reliance on motorised transportation.

The second concept is walkability and cyclability, which refers to the quality of the walking or cycling environment and its ability to support and encourage active transportation. This includes creating an attractive and safe environment for pedestrians and cyclists, ensuring good pavement quality and accessibility for those with mobility challenges, providing well lit paths, and avoiding unwanted exposures, such as noise and air pollution.

The third concept is individuals' capabilities and opportunities to access and use active transportation modes (ie, accessibility). Accessibility consists of several dimensions, including social, economic, skills-related, physical, temporal, spatial, informational, legal-organisational, mental, and cultural dimensions. The fourth concept is the need for cooperation and interdisciplinary approaches among various sectors. One should bring together transportation, urban planning, public health, and other relevant sectors to create integrated and comprehensive approaches to active transportation planning...

Language: en