Active transportation improves health, well-being

Long commutes cause problems

Jon Boyd, Aug 22, 10.

“American workers with lengthy commutes are more likely to report a range of adverse physical and emotional conditions, leading to lower overall scores on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index,” writes Steve Crabtree of Gallup (via DC.Streetblogs):

American employees report an average commute from home to work of 23 minutes, with average times higher in most of the country’s largest metro areas. About one in five U.S. workers (19%) spends more than half an hour getting to work, and 3% commute for more than an hour each way.

Those who do report long commutes are more likely to complain of several health problems. For example, one in three employees with a commute of more than 90 minutes say they have had a neck or back condition that has caused recurrent pain in the past 12 months; among those with commutes of 10 minutes or less, the figure drops to roughly one in four. Those with long commutes are also more likely to say they have at some point been diagnosed with high cholesterol and are more likely to have a Body Mass Index that classifies them as obese.

Reactions to Gallup-Healthways commuting report
Richard Florida reacts to the report saying, “Commuting is very bad for you.” 

Ryan Avent of The Bellows accepts the correlation while questioning the breadth of the causation:

It’s pretty clear that long commutes are bad for you. Accidents kill 40,000 people a year, driving is stressful, and so on. At the same time, it’s worth being a little cautious when dealing with figures like those Richard Florida presents here. He posts charts summarizing data from a Gallup-Healthways survey, tracking the incidence of various health problems sorted by commuting time. So those with hour-long commutes are more likely to have neck and back pain, high cholesterol, stress, and so on.

It would be silly to say that there is no causation running from the driving to the health problems. But there are two other things to keep in mind. One is that people with certain health problems are likely to select into lifestyles that involve long commutes. Research indicates that the obese select into suburban, auto-oriented lifestyles. Similarly, someone with neck and back pain might not be particularly excited about life in a walkable, bike-able community.

Active versus passive transportation and obesity rates
Adam Volland of DC.Streetsblog considers two reports, one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the rising obesity rates, and a Gallup ranking of the states’ obesity rates according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index:

In the CDC ranking of states (which varies slightly from the Gallup ranking), Colorado and the District of Columbia are the only states with obesity rates under 20 percent, making their rate nearly 15 points lower than the most obese states. Their secret? During a press briefing, the CDC’s Bill Dietz speculated that Colorado’s investment in biking and walking trails, as well as District residents’ frequent use of public transportation, which goes hand in hand with walking and thus burns more calories than driving, are possible factors.

Indeed, if you look at rates of active commuting (walking and biking) in the most and least obese states, a revealing correlation emerges. Three of the five most obese states in the Gallup ranking are also among the five states with the smallest percentage of people who bike to work. At the other end of the spectrum, four of the ten thinnest states are among those where people bike to work most frequently. (The commuting rates come from Census data detailed in this League of American Bicyclists report.)

The relationship seems to hold up when you include walking. People in the five most obese states make about 5.2 percent of all trips by bike or on foot, according to data published recently in a 2010 benchmarking report from the Alliance for Biking and Walking. In contrast, people in the five least obese states made twice as many trips—10.2 percent of them—by bike or on foot.

It seems unlikely that you can chalk this all up to coincidence, but it’s worth noting that these are back-of-the-envelope comparisons made without the eye of a trained statistician. And, as Dietz noted in the press briefing, other factors (such as demographic differences) surely play an important role.

For a second opinion, I checked with John Pucher, a Rutgers University planning professor with ample experience crunching these sorts of numbers. The relationship between a lack of active commuting and obesity is absolutely real, Pucher said via email. In fact, Pucher and colleagues have just completed a rigorous study of the relationship in which they examined health and travel data for 14 countries, all 50 U.S. states, and 47 of the 50 largest American cities.

At all three levels, the researchers found a clear negative relationship between active travel and obesity. Differences in transportation choices account for nearly a third of the variation in obesity rate among states, their analysis shows. Since the study hasn’t been published officially, Pucher couldn’t reveal any more specifics at this time. But stay tuned: The full study will come out in the American Journal of Public Health on August 20, and we’ll have more details then.

Some Philadelphia researchers reported an inverse relationship between traveling by light rail and obesity, according to Science Daily (via NRDC blog):

“Using two surveys, one collecting data prior to the completion of an LRT in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second after completion, investigators found that using light rail for commuting was associated with reductions in body mass index (BMI) over time. Specifically, LRT reduced BMI by an average of 1.18 kg/m2 compared to non-LRT users in the same area over a 12-18 month follow-up period. This is equivalent to a relative weight loss of 6.45 lbs for a person who is 5’5. LRT users were also 81% less likely to become obese over time.

The same study observed some other health benefits associated with light rail usage, as published by Kaid Benfield:

More positive perceptions of one’s neighborhood
15 percent lower odds of obesity
9 percent higher odds of meeting weekly recommended physical activity through walking
11 percent higher odds of meeting recommended physical activity levels of vigorous exercise [note: running to catch the train?]
81 percent reduced odds of “becoming obese over time”

Smart Growth America cites similar results from an APTA study:

It may be time to evolve from “an apple a day” to “a train ride a day” to keep the doctor away.

A new study from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reports that residents of transit oriented, smart growth communities live healthier, longer lives. Living in these places lowers risk in five of the 10 leading causes of death, including cancer, heart disease, and car accidents.

Why is this the case? Individuals who live near a quality public transportation system drive less, which significantly reduces the risk of an accident. They spend more time walking, which improves overall fitness. Public transportation creates less pollution per passenger mile than cars, which decreases the risk of some cancers and birth defects.

In sum, says APTA president William Millar, “Public transportation enhances the overall quality of life of an individual and a community.”

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