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Health benefits of cycling: A systematic review
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to update the evidence on the health benefits of cycling. A systematic review of the literature resulted in 16 cycling-specific studies. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies showed a clear positive relationship between cycling and cardiorespiratory fitness in youths. Prospective observational studies demonstrated a strong inverse relationship between commuter cycling and all-cause mortality, cancer mortality, and cancer morbidity among middle-aged to elderly subjects. Intervention studies among working-age adults indicated consistent improvements in cardiovascular fitness and some improvements in cardiovascular risk factors due to commuting cycling. Six studies showed a consistent positive dose-response gradient between the amount of cycling and the health benefits. Systematic assessment of the quality of the studies showed most of them to be of moderate to high quality. According to standard criteria used primarily for the assessment of clinical studies, the strength of this evidence was strong for fitness benefits, moderate for benefits in cardiovascular risk factors, and inconclusive for all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality, cancer risk, and overweight and obesity. While more intervention research is needed to build a solid knowledge base of the health benefits of cycling, the existing evidence reinforces the current efforts to promote cycling as an important contributor for better population health.
... Cycling has several health benefits, including a lower incidence of obesity, greater cardiovascular fitness, and a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a variety of cancer side effects (Oja et al., 2011). In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the bicycle as a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transportation (Fishman andCherry, 2015, de Kruijf et al., 2018). ...
... Cycling as one of the active mobility modes has been shown to reduce the incidence of obesity, increase cardiovascular fitness, and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a variety of cancer-related side effects (Oja et al., 2011). Cycling may also provide financial benefits, as well as reduced CO2 emissions, noise and air pollution, and traffic congestion . ...
... Therefore, active mobility, which is linked to health, physical activity, and the prevention of chronic diseases, is increasingly being included in transportation and urban planning studies looking for alternatives to motorized transportation . Cycling as one of the active mobility modes has been shown to reduce the incidence of obesity, increase cardiovascular fitness, and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a variety of cancer-related side effects (Oja et al., 2011). Top journals of the examined papers believe that bicycling is critical for creating a city with sustainable development by lowering pollution from motorized vehicle emissions, improving inhabitants' health and physical fitness, and, most critically, minimizing road traffic accidents. ...
As the world's population expands at a rapid rate, cities are dealing with difficulties such as traffic congestion, air pollution, road accidents, and urban sprawl. Cycling and walking are non-motorized modalities that require less infrastructure and do not utilize fossil fuels. They are also less expensive to deploy and maintain for both users and governments than motorized modes of transportation. As a result, this master's thesis aims to find strategies and instruments for greater active mobility. A scoping literature review, document study, a digital survey, and interviews were used to identify measures that might be utilized as incentives to promote walkability and bikeability in the Elgeseter neighborhood of Trondheim. The analysis is carried out according to the following research question: What can motivate citizens that commute to or travel inside the Elgeseter district to change their behavior toward more walking and biking? The findings identified motivators, barriers, and recommendations for increasing active mobility in the Elgeseter district. Even while practically every city in the world is keen to solve these concerns, they will require comprehensive planning methods that cover everything from land use to municipal infrastructure design. Such strategies are required to persuade individuals to adopt green, sustainable means of transportation as a lifestyle option rather than a legal need. The study adds to our understanding of the factors that influence commuters' willingness to engage in active mobility in the Elgeseter district.
... O ciclismo enquanto esporte e prática de atividade física aeróbica (FURIA, 2011) oferece diversos benefícios à saúde, como a possibilidade de emagrecimento (BØRRESTAD et al., 2012;OJA et al., 2011;VILLA-GONZÁLEZ et al., 2017), proteção contra doenças cardiovasculares, redução dos fatores de risco cardiometabólicos (CHRISTIANSEN et al., 2014;GHEKIERE et al., 2016), melhora da saúde mental (GHEKIERE et al., 2016) e a proteção contra doenças graves como cânceres (OJA et al., 2011). Por estes benefícios, entre outros, o ciclismo tem se estabelecido como prática de atividade física de lazer e esporte competitivo no Brasil (INOUE et al., 2016). ...
... O ciclismo enquanto esporte e prática de atividade física aeróbica (FURIA, 2011) oferece diversos benefícios à saúde, como a possibilidade de emagrecimento (BØRRESTAD et al., 2012;OJA et al., 2011;VILLA-GONZÁLEZ et al., 2017), proteção contra doenças cardiovasculares, redução dos fatores de risco cardiometabólicos (CHRISTIANSEN et al., 2014;GHEKIERE et al., 2016), melhora da saúde mental (GHEKIERE et al., 2016) e a proteção contra doenças graves como cânceres (OJA et al., 2011). Por estes benefícios, entre outros, o ciclismo tem se estabelecido como prática de atividade física de lazer e esporte competitivo no Brasil (INOUE et al., 2016). ...
... Isso sugere que os sujeitos no presente estudo praticam ciclismo com certa regularidade e apresentam dificuldades. Além disso, podem estar despreparados fisicamente para essa prática (BURT, 2014;COFFMAN, 2010;FURIA, 2011;GARCÍA CAMPAYO et al., 2008;HAYS et al., 2018;IMPELLIZZERI;MARCORA, 2007a;NOVAK et al., 2018;WIRNITZER;KORNEXL, 2008 (BØRRESTAD et al., 2012;CHRISTIANSEN et al., 2014;FURIA, 2011;GHEKIERE et al., 2016;INOUE et al., 2016;LEMES et al., 2021a;OJA et al., 2011;VILLA-GONZÁLEZ et al., 2017). Como limitações, destacamos a subjetividade da forma de avaliação por questionário semiestruturado. ...
Realizou-se a descrição do perfil auto reportado de ciclistas adultos, praticantes de MTB, no que se refere as motivações, características e experiência no esporte, sobrepeso e obesidade avaliados pelo índice de massa corporal (IMC), ocorrência de dores, tempo de sono, nível de intensidade durante a prática de MTB, flexibilidade autopercebida e resistência física geral. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo com abordagem mista, que incluiu 23 ciclistas, com idades entre 33 a 72 anos. Estes responderam um questionário durante a pandemia de COVID-19. Os resultados e conclusões indicam que as motivações no MTB se originam na infância e adolescência, por incentivo de grupo ou de amigos e familiares. As taxas de sobrepeso/obesidade e dores foram elevadas, mais de 70 e 50% respectivamente. Apenas 17,4% dos ciclistas atingia 7 horas ou mais de sono noturno. As ocorrências de flexibilidade baixa (não esperada) e resistência física geral baixa/moderada ultrapassaram 40%. Palavras-chave: Ciclismo; Atividade física; Exercício Físico; Volta ao Esporte; SARS-CoV-2
... Nevertheless, internationally, increases in cycling participation are recognized as having a consistently positive impact on personal, environmental, and societal health (Doorley et al., 2017). For example, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies show a clear positive relationship between cycling and cardiorespiratory fitness (Oja et al., 2011) and the maintenance of active lifestyles (Hogendorf et al., 2020;Merom et al., 2006). Consumers who often bike are more likely to be healthy (Panter et al., 2011;Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003) and personal and public health can be a powerful intervention to induce consumers' behavioral intention for cycling (Merom et al., 2006) and promote active transport and sustainable mobility (Gerike et al., 2019;Maizlish et al., 2017;Mundorf et al., 2018). ...
... Cycling is strongly associated with health and/or the environment (Forsyth & Oakes, 2015;Oja et al., 2011;Panter et al., 2011;Pucher et al., 2010;Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003;Zahran et al., 2008). ...
... Frequent cyclists have lower body mass indices and are more physically active overall compared with others (Forsyth & Oakes, 2015). Since the health benefits of cycling are confirmed, further intervention research is needed to build a solid knowledge and understanding of the health benefits of cycling from a consumer behavior perspective and systematic review (Oja et al., 2011). ...
Bicycling is an important form of active transport that contributes to sustainability mobility as a result of its role in personal and public health and emissions reduction. The significance of which has grown since the COVID‐19 pandemic outbreak. However, biking studies have neglected, in theoretical terms, developing an understanding of why consumers bike. Therefore, this research designs and verifies an extended theory of planned behavior adding personal and public health and a moderator of perceived smart application usage to help explain such consumer behavior. This study is based on a digital survey of South Koreans who biked for leisure, tourism, and/or work, utilizing partial least squares‐structural equation modeling with multi‐group analysis and Fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results revealed that personal health is most important to cyclists, followed by public health, attitude, and subjective norm. Interestingly, people with perceived high usage of smart applications for biking show stronger relationships between public health and attitude and perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention than low users. In contrast, individuals with perceived low usage of smart applications for biking reveal a stronger relationship between attitude and behavioral intention than high users. The high and low user groups of smart applications also distinctively differ in levels of cycling behavior. Consequently, this work offers several theoretical and managerial implications for research and practice.
... Widespread utility cycling in cities is beneficial from a variety of perspectives. There is evidence that increased utility cycling can benefit economies (e.g., Deenihan and Caulfield, 2014;Fishman, Schepers and Maria Kamphuis, 2015) but, more importantly, the environment (Lindsay, Macmillan and Woodward, 2011;Rojas-Rueda et al., 2011) and public health, through increasing levels of physical activity and lowering local air pollution (e.g., Pucher et al., 2010;Oja et al., 2011;Rojas-Rueda et al., 2011;Deenihan and Caulfield, 2014;Tainio et al., 2016). Indeed, there has been has been policy produced to cultivate the growth of cycling in Ireland (Smarter Travel, 2009). ...
... From a societal perspective, there are a myriad of potential benefits stemming from the widespread use of a cycle as a mode of transport. Such advantages of increased 'utility cycling' include possible improvements in the economy (Saelensminde, 2004;Lindsay, Macmillan and Woodward, 2011;Deenihan and Caulfield, 2014;Fishman, Schepers and Maria Kamphuis, 2015), the environment (Lindsay, Macmillan and Woodward, 2011;Rojas-Rueda et al., 2011) and public health (Jeroen Johan de Pucher et al., 2010;Lindsay, Macmillan and Woodward, 2011;Oja et al., 2011;Rojas-Rueda et al., 2011;Deenihan and Caulfield, 2014;Kelly et al., 2014;Fishman, Schepers and Maria Kamphuis, 2015;Götschi, Garrard and Giles-Corti, 2016;Tainio et al., 2016). ...
... Aggregating bodies of epidemiological research, the systematic reviews of Oja et al. (2011) and Kelly et al. (2014) reported decreases in mortality associated with utility cycling. Incorporating a meta-analysis, Kelly et al. (2014) estimated that with a standard dose of cycling (defined by them as 11.25 MET.hours per week in terms of physical activity) the risk of all-cause mortality is reduced by 10% (OR: 0.9, CI: 0.94 -0.87) adjusted for the effects of physical activity beyond cycling itself. ...
Reports on the safety of cycling and research investigating factors thought to impinge on cycling risk and safety are often complex, insufficient and, at times, contradictory and inconclusive. Amongst this ambiguous understanding of matters of risk and safety in relation to cycling, the provisional aim of this study was to explore how cyclists themselves deal with matters of risk in the context of Dublin. Classical grounded theory methodology was employed over the course of the study. Data collection involved 28 qualitative interviews which took place simultaneously with data analysis, in which grounded theory procedures were adhered to; namely, open coding, selective coding, memoing, theoretical sampling, and theoretical saturation. Emerging from data collection and analysis, it was conceptualised that dealing with conditions of ‘precarious entitlement’ to public space is a main concern of utility cyclists in Dublin. That is, cyclists in Dublin perceive an entitlement to public space that is precarious to exercise as a cyclist in practice. In order to negotiate such conditions, cyclists in Dublin can engage in ‘privatising vulnerability’. Namely, they can make their vulnerability a matter of personal rather than shared responsibility, prioritising their perceived safety over matters of entitlement, responsibility and fairness through particular modes of action. Furthermore, cyclists in Dublin can engage in practices of ‘provoking responsibility’, in which both subtle and conspicuous actions are taken in order to provoke a sense of responsibility in other public space users to respect a cyclist’s entitlement to public space and vulnerability within conditions of precarious entitlement. This theory reveals a new form of structural vulnerability, a ‘state of nature within a state of civilisation’ and a problem of accessibility to public space. Moreover, it conceptualises modes of action in an urban context that involve social withdrawal, submission, and individualisation in public space, as well as active and ongoing negotiation between citizens of life in common and recognition, alongside efforts to appropriate and produce public space.
... Recreational running is mostly done by individuals, but recreational cycling is done by families, even extended families of several generations or informal groups of friends and acquaintances, where the intention of running is not oriented toward sports performances, but rather toward psychorelaxation. In contrast, creating or strengthening social ties is often the intention in joint cycling [3]. Recreational cycling with its bio-psycho-social dimensions is one of the current elements of an active lifestyle [4], and in different European countries it follows different historical and cultural traditions and different socioeconomic conditions [5]. ...
... There is insufficient convincing evidence in the literature on the extent to which recreational running and cycling can affect an individual's functional capacity from youth to old age [10]. There is also relatively little data on the health benefits and physiological effects of recreational cycling and running when comparing different age groups of men and women [3]. The aim of our study was therefore to compare body composition, lung function and aerobic fitness as a function of age in a cross-sectional study of 277 recreational cyclists (men: n = 163, women: n = 114) and 377 recreational runners (men: n = 239, women: n = 138) aged 20 to 60 years. ...
Abstract: Human physical activities may bring potential health benefits. The aim of our study was to compare body composition, lung function and aerobic fitness as a function of age in a cross-sectional study of 277 recreational cyclists (men: n = 163, women: n = 114) and 377 recreational runners (men: n = 239, women: n = 138) aged 20 to 60 years, with a training volume of about 2000 to 4000 km per year for cyclists and 25 to 60 km per week for runners. The survey focused on comparing the values of body composition, lung function and aerobic fitness in dependence on age. The results suggest that recreational cycling and running is associated with a favorable body composition and increased physical fitness, where the percentage of body fat in athletes corresponds to about 70–90% of the population norm, while physical fitness indices, maximum oxygen consumption and maximum exercise performance corresponded at about 140 to 150% of the population norms. The study confirms the assumption that the decrease in physiological functions and/or physical condition with age is much slower in those who participate in recreational sports than in the general nonsports population.
Keywords: physical fitness; ageing; male and female recreational athletes; cycling; running; body composition; maximum oxygen consumption; pulmonary function
... This would lead to a reduction of choice in transport options. A reduction in transport options counteracts societal goals where cycling can address challenges related to climate change, public health, and traffic congestion Götschi et al. 2016;Kelly et al. 2014;Macmillan et al. 2014;Oja et al. 2011). Considering that cycling is a burgeoning and essential part of transport systems, its cyclical oppression is representative of historical trends caused by the coercion of novel transport technology (Prati et al. 2017;Urry 2004). ...
... This paper has argued that, based on historical events and prevailing trends, that there may be a looming threat to mobility choice and a third oppression in a future of AI-enabled mobility in the form of the AV. There are broad societal implications that a third oppression and stifling of transportation options would have on outcomes related to climate change, public health, and traffic congestion Götschi et al. 2016;Kelly et al. 2014;Macmillan et al. 2014;Oja et al. 2011). However, there are further emerging concerns around how AI is adopted and how it influences transportation systems and, in turn, mobility justice (Sheller 2018). ...
Consequential historical decisions that shaped transportation systems and their influence on society have many valuable lessons. The decisions we learn from and choose to make going forward will play a key role in shaping the mobility landscape of the future. This is especially pertinent as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in the form of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Throughout urban history, there have been cyclical transport oppressions of previous-generation transportation methods to make way for novel transport methods. These cyclical oppressions can be identified in the baroque and modernist periods, and a third oppression may occur in the contemporary period. To explore the idea of a third oppression , we focus on the bicycle and outline the history of cycling to understand how historical mode oppression unfolded. We then present several social and political factors that contributed to the oppression of cycling and share recommendations for how to avoid future oppressions including political, social, and design actions for researchers and policymakers to take. This paper argues that priorities for AI-enabled mobility and cyclist needs be advanced in proportion to the extent that they contribute to societal goals of urban containment, public realm, and proximal cities. Additionally, future mobility evolutions should prioritise mobility justice and mode choice over inducing a singular transportation method.
... People might benefit from the physical exercise of riding a bicycle rather than driving or using public transportation. It has been reported that regular bicycle riding strengthens bones and joints, improves the functions of the heart and lungs, increases circulation, and reduces the risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases [15]. However, riders also have an increased risk of exposure to air pollutants, which is negatively associated with SDG3. ...
... Above these PM thresholds, ridership presented a nearly linear negative association with increasing PM levels. Two clear peaks (6-9 and 18-21) were observed during weekdays, indicating commuting behavior, whereas a single peak (15)(16)(17)(18) was observed on weekends ( Figure 5). To examine potential variations in the relationship between ridership and air pollution in commuting versus leisure rides, we performed a stratification analysis of weekday versus weekend rides ( Figure 6). ...
A bicycle-sharing system (BSS) has been implemented in Seoul, South Korea to promote green transportation policy as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to mitigate climate change, reduce traffic jams, and promote physical activity. However, the concentration of air pollutants in Seoul often exceeds the standards of the World Health Organization, thereby creating a conflict with SDG 3 (Health). Therefore, it is important to recognize the trade-offs between actions targeted at SDGs as they might offset each other. In this context, a primary concern is investigating how the behavior of BSS users regarding outdoor air pollution appears. This study explores the relationship between ambient air pollution and the behavior of BSS riders in Seoul. We conducted a time-series analysis of associations between particulate air pollution and participation in the BSS. We used generalized additive models, adjusted for mean temperature, humidity, rainfall, day of the week, long-term trends, and seasonality to construct an exposure–response relationship. We observed a nonlinear relationship between increasing air pollution and bicycle ridership. This study method can be used as a basis for similar analyses to investigate BSS policies in other cities.
... 'Electric vehicles and motorcycles' comprised a motorized transportation mode that is most commonly used for short-distance travel, while 'automobiles' (car commuting) included the use of private cars, taxis, and unit shuttles. People who commute via automobile mode typically sit quietly during their commutes, and this mode involves the least physical activity [44][45][46]. ...
... Particularly, Hansson suggests that patients with chronic diseases may not be willing or may not continue to choose walking or bicycling to commute [37]. Existing research has concluded that there is no uniform standard for the selection of patients' health variables: mental and physical health are frequently included, but studies generally lack attention to healthy behaviors [45]. Regarding the definition of the concept of health proposed by the World Health Organisation, we considered 'being healthy' primarily as being in good physical and mental condition, and having the ability to actively adapt to the social environment [47]. ...
The health of patients with chronic diseases is affected not only by factors such as eating and living habits, but also by the neighborhood built environment, and by travel conditions. Using 18 blocks in the main urban area of Changshu, China, we performed structural equation modelling, to explore the relationships between the neighborhood built environment, the commuting patterns of patients with chronic diseases, and patient health. We first divided the commuting patterns into four categories—walking/biking, public transportation, electric vehicles/motorcycles, and cars—and conducted a street-scale questionnaire survey. Secondly, we divided ‘health’ into three latent variables—physical health, mental health, and healthy behavior—and analyzed the factors influencing the street environment. Finally, we verified our theoretical framework through a mathematical statistical analysis model. We found that: (1) service facility, environmental quality, and community safety perception in the neighborhood built environment significantly impacted commuting patterns; (2) the patient’s physical health was significantly correlated with healthy behaviors and daily commuting patterns; and (3) socioeconomic attributes directly affected neighborhood environmental satisfaction, and indirectly affected the patient’s health. Neighborhood environmental satisfaction also directly affected the patient’s health, and there was a cross-influence relationship between these factors. We propose strengthening the walkability and connectivity of the neighborhood built environment, and improving the health awareness of patients, and their willingness to participate in healthy behaviors.
... The negative environmental impact of ICEVs is manifested by high energy consumption, air pollution [6] with country specific impacts such as the photochemical smog [7] in China, traffic congestion and traffic noise etc. [8][9][10]), in addition to public health impacts [11]. There is an increased awareness of the adverse health impacts associated with a range of transport-related exposures and practices [12], including premature mortality rates [13][14][15]. For example, a recent study in Barcelona, Spain assessed the health impacts of urban transport-related exposures (including air pollution, noise, heat, green space, and physical activity), with results suggesting that 20% of premature mortality may be preventable by changing current urban transport practices to more sustainable transport measures [16]. ...
Even with technological advances, internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) are unlikely to meet net zero targets, whilst emitting high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in addition to impacting public health. Technological improvements of ICEVs are not enough to meet targets. Therefore, phasing out and banning the sale of new ICEVs as soon as possible could provide a stronger impetus to reduce transport emissions. The integration of low emission vehicles including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles is often seen as a method to reduce transport emissions. Although these vehicles are often considered ‘zero emission’ at their point of use, their true environmental impact is dependent on the carbon intensity of electricity used to ‘fuel’ the vehicle. Therefore, without the decarbonisation of electricity generation, environmental benefits of low emission transport will be diminished. This chapter focuses on private vehicles and shows that transitioning to low emission transport faces many barriers including cost, range anxiety and charging infrastructure distribution, which need to be overcome for an effective transition to low emission vehicles. This has resulted in numerous monetary and non-monetary incentives being introduced to encourage this transition. However even with this transition, emission levels will remain high per person per kilometre travelled and other low carbon alternatives need to be considered.
... Cycling is one of the most popular sports globally (Decock et al., 2016;Priego Quesada et al., 2019) and has probably become the most sustainable mode of transport (Troncoso et al., 2019). Cycling promotes physical and psychosocial health-related benefits (Oja et al., 2011) and, therefore, is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, or obesity (Campbell & Turner, 2018;Martland et al., 2019;Nordengen et al., 2019;Reiner et al., 2013). ...
The aim was to know if cycling affects spinal morphology in postures off the bicycle, such as adapting the spinal curvatures on the bicycle depending on the handlebar type and position on the handlebars. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The studies selected met the following criteria: a) the study design was cross-sectional or longitudinal (experimental or cohorts); b) the study evaluated the sagittal morphology of the spine on the bicycle; c) the study included healthy and trained participants without injuries or cyclists reporting low back pain. Fifteen studies reported that a greater pelvic tilt was observed that when the handlebar was in a lower position. Sixteen studies found that lumbar kyphosis was greater when the handlebar grip was lower and farther from the saddle. Twelve studies reported that a tendency towards greater thoracic flexion as the time spent pedalling on the bicycle increased. In conclusion, the practice of cycling produces adaptations in the morphology of the spine of the cyclist compared to non-cyclists, such as an increase in pelvic tilt and a greater capacity for lumbar flexion in trunk flexion positions, and a greater thoracic kyphosis in the standing position.
... Cycling is considered to be a foundational movement skill, since it impacts an individual's capability to be physically active and can promote physical activity and health across the lifespan (8). Moreover, cycling is associated with extensive health, economic and environmental benefits (9,10). In some contemporary cities, as people start valuing sustainability and believing that the car's liabilities outweigh its benefits, the bicycle has emerged as an alternative to the car, mainly for commuting (11,12). ...
Background
Learning to cycle is an important milestone for children, but the popularity of cycling and the environmental factors that promote the development and practice of this foundational movement skill vary among cultures and across time. This present study aimed to investigate if country of residence and the generation in which a person was born influence the age at which people learn to cycle.
Methods
Data were collected through an online survey between November 2019 and December 2020. For this study, a total of 9,589 responses were obtained for adults (self-report) and children (parental report) living in 10 countries (Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Finland, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Mexico, Croatia, and the Netherlands). Participants were grouped according to their year of birth with 20-year periods approximately corresponding to 3 generations: 1960–79 (generation X; n = 2,214); 1980–99 (generation Y; n = 3,994); 2000–2019 (generation Z; n = 3,381).
Results
A two-way ANOVA showed a significant effect of country, F (9,8628) = 90.17, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.086, and generation, F (2,8628) = 47.21, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.122, on the age at which individuals learn to cycle. Countries with the lowest learning age were the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium and countries with the highest learning age were Brazil and Mexico. Furthermore, the age at which one learns to cycle has decreased across generations. There was also a significant country x generation interaction effect on learning age, F (18,8628) = 2.90, p < 0.001; however, this effect was negligible ( η p 2 = 0.006).
Conclusions
These findings support the socio-ecological perspective that learning to cycle is a process affected by both proximal and distal influences, including individual, environment and time.
... For the purpose of this research, the authors will in the following focus particularly on lightweight vehicles that are also referred to as micro-mobility (e.g., bicycles and electric scooters). While the economic and environmental benefits of cycling as well as its contribution to physical health and well-being are well documented in the literature (see Oja et al., 2011 for a review), bicycle sharing (hereafter: bike-sharing) additionally eliminates some of the downsides of private bicycles. Consider the risk of theft, maintenance costs, and, in many cases, the unavailability to bring one's bicycle on public transport. ...
Transit accessibility is one of the key indicators to assess the performance of transport systems, whereby higher scores indicate a better performance in terms of social equity (e.g., more equal access to jobs and other opportunities). To inform policymakers and support decision-making, it is crucial to measure potential accessibility changes for proposed transport investments. Due to the paucity of available data, however, calculating and monitoring accessibility is a difficult task. This holds particularly for the Global South, where informal or semi-formal transport services (paratransit) are often the most dominant transport mode. Anchored in SDG 11 for more ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, the UN has thus proposed a simplified, globally applicable indicator for accessibility (SDG 11.2.1) that measures the share of the population with convenient access to public transport. Building on this definition and leveraging on open data sources, we analyze potential accessibility gains under Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Metro Manila, Philippines. We show that the integration of paratransit (i.e., jeepneys) into the transit network could almost triple accessibility from 23.9 % to 65.0 %. The integration of micro-mobility (i.e., e-scooter and bicycles) as a feeder mode could further boost this share significantly (to 97.9 % and 99.9 %, respectively). We outline and discuss evidence-based policy recommendations to exploit this potential and foster a sustainable development under MaaS. Finally, we conclude with a research agenda for micro-mobility and MaaS in developing countries, a topic which has been widely overlooked in the scientific literature so far.
... Foley et al. (2015) highlight that "active commuting leads to healthy activity and positive mortality and cardiovascular outcomes." This view is supported by Hamer and Chida (2008); Kitchen, Williams, and Chowhan (2011);and Oja et al. (2011). Further to this, the research underscores a direct correlation between changing behaviours towards active commuting and recreational and total physical activity. ...
Throughout the world, Australia-wide—and indeed within Western Australia—our built environments, public spaces, proximities, scales, distances, contexts, and time-pressures offer a diversity of unique conditions, that influence behaviour. The resultant behaviours may manifest as socially acceptable expressions of behavioural norms that are (subconsciously) specifically attuned to defined spatial characteristics and cues through cultural and social conditioning, or they may present as undesirable behaviours. Extant literature, which has informed the objectives of this research, largely concludes that it is difficult to motivate changes in human behaviours associated with commuting activities, thus to this end, the study sought to determine the effects of these spatial and time-related attributes through a convenience commute case study.
This research explores Australian commuting preferences at a national level, a state capital city level through census data, and organisation level. At an organisation level, the study sought to determine how behaviours associated with work-related travel changed in response to a ‘disruption’ (relocation) event. Australian multi-disciplinary design practice Hames Sharley conducted this local, scalable case study on itself, through its Perth studio, which relocated from an office in Subiaco to the heart of the city, to determine how this transition affected work-related travel habits, and how they compared to state and national figures.
The study consisted of a two-part survey. The resultant data, which is compared with state and national figures, contributes to the much-needed disciplinary discourse in relation to evolving contemporary cities and how communities develop and revise commuting habits, and the implications on city worker sentiment towards re-locating their workplace in the CBD.1 Specifically, this research examines employees’ (built-environment industry professionals) commuting preferences and the factors influencing their behaviours and experiences, both prior to and post transitioning from Subiaco to a new office situated in Perth’s central business district (CBD). It was anticipated that for the employees the shift to the CBD would lead to dependence on public transport—one of the more ambitious decarbonisation strategies achieved through the democratisation of transportation and access to parking. The office transition occurred during a “non-lockdown” winter period between July and August 2021. Google Maps was used to measure the distance and quantify the impact on estimated travel times between the two study locations by driving, walking, and using public transport.
To determine future research opportunities, this research also sought to understand whether the change in work location affected the employees’ daily step count. The study found sufficient change in mobility data which is worthy of further investigation to adequately elicit valid findings related to agile hybrid office workplace findings to inform design decisions in areas of occupancy, efficiencies, health, and productivity. 2 The research adds to industry understanding of potential associated CBD office relocation value-add outcomes and contributes to the existing body of interdisciplinary knowledge at the nexus between planning, urban development policy, economics, and public health, and public transportation related incentivisation and decision-making for city re-activation.
... As the debate over which modes of transportation need to be promoted at individual and societal levels grows larger and stronger, both policymakers and researchers need a clear and thorough understanding of the factors that influence the decision to use either the car or pro-environmental means of transportation. Cycling is an affordable way of active transportation, which contributes to individual well-being and environmental sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions (Heinen et al., 2010), while also mitigating health risks related to physical inactivity (for a systematic review see Oja et al., 2011). Even though bicycle transportation is sometimes perceived as more relaxing and exciting than other transportation modes (Gatersleben & Uzzell, 2007), like most other types of proenvironmental behaviors, it often requires putting aside egoistical and hedonistic advantages for moral considerations. ...
Antecedent conditions of cycling have been extensively studied, yet barriers that prevent individuals from choosing bicycle transportation are less known. The present study, conducted on a sample of individuals who were both cyclists and drivers (N = 280), investigated whether dependence on car transportation significantly reduces cycling frequency. It also assessed the predictive validity of a larger set of cycling determinants that included moral, objective environmental , demographic and car-related variables. Responses were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results show that moral considerations do little to predict cycling frequency and that car-related factors such as perceived behavioral control to reduce car use (β = 0.28) and car use habits (β =-0.27) have the strongest predictive power. Objective environmental factors such as temperature (β =-0.13) and altitude (β =-0.15) or demographic factors such as gender (β = 0.19) were also significant predictors of cycling frequency. The present study highlights a new perspective of understanding cycling behavior and pleads for the inclusion of car-related factors in its future conceptualizations and interventions to encourage it.
... Cycling has been recognized as an important means of promoting public health and it is among the most popular sports [1][2][3]. However, the constant pressure exerted on the bicycle seat might be the cause of non-traumatic injuries [4], ranging from saddle sores to more serious disorders related to the urogenital system [5]. ...
When pedaling, the excessive pressure on the seat has the potential to produce injuries and this can strongly affect sport performance. Recently, a large effort has been dedicated to the reduction of the pressure occurring at the saddle region. Our work aims to verify the possibility of modifying cyclists’ pedaling posture, and consequently the pressure on the saddle, by applying a proprioceptive stimulus. Equistasi® (Equistasi srl, Milano, Italy) is a wearable device that emits focal mechanical vibrations able to transform the body temperature into mechanical vibratory energy via the embedded nanotechnology. The data acquired through a pressure mapping system (GebioMized®) on 70 cyclists, with and without Equistasi®, were analyzed. Pedaling in three positions was recorded on a spin trainer: with hands on the top, hands on the drop handlebar, and hands on the lever. Average force, contact surface, and average and maximum pressure each in different regions of the saddle were analyzed, as well as integral pressure time and center of pressure. In the comparisons between hands positions, overall pressure and force variables were significantly lower in the drop-handlebar position at the rear saddle (p < 0.03) and higher in hand-on-lever and drop-handlebar positions at the front saddle (p < 0.01). When applying the Equistasi device, the contact surface was significantly larger in all hand positions (p < 0.05), suggesting that focal stimulation of the lumbar proprioceptive system can change cyclists’ posture.
... Exercises such as walking, jogging, cycling, table tennis, resistance training, weight-bearing exercise, and Tai-Chi Chuan (TCC) are beneficial for older people to improve their general fitness and health (Martyn-St James and Carroll, 2008;Peterson et al., 2010;Oja et al., 2011;Kim et al., 2014;Ikenaga et al., 2017;Naderi et al., 2018;Pasqualini et al., 2019;Izquierdo et al., 2021). Among these exercises, TCC, a low-speed and lowimpact ancient Chinese martial art, is becoming popular among the elderly for improving their general physical condition. ...
Introduction
Losing balance or tripping over obstacles is considered one of the most common causes of falls in the elderly. Tai-Chi Chuan (TCC) has been shown to improve muscle strength, inter-joint coordination and balance control in the elderly. This study aimed to determine whether older long-term TCC practitioners would show multi-joint kinematic strategies that would reduce the risk of tripping during obstacle-crossing compared to peers without TCC experience.
Methods
Three-dimensional motions of the pelvis and lower extremities were measured using a motion capture system in fifteen older long-term TCC practitioners (TCC group) and 15 healthy controls without TCC experience during walking and crossing obstacles of three different heights. Crossing angles of the pelvis and lower limbs and toe-obstacle clearances were obtained and analyzed using two-way analyses of variance to study the between-subject (group) and within-subject (height) effects. A multi-link system approach was used to reveal the relationship between joint angular changes and toe-obstacle clearances.
Results
Compared to the controls, the TCC group showed increased leading and trailing toe-obstacle clearances ( p < 0.05) with increased pelvic hiking and hip flexion but decreased hip adduction on the swing side and decreased knee flexion on the stance side during leading-limb crossing ( p < 0.05), and increased pelvic hiking and anterior tilt but decreased hip adduction on the swing side, and decreased knee flexion on the stance side during trailing limb crossing ( p < 0.05). All significant joint angular changes contributed to the increases in the toe-obstacle clearances.
Conclusion
The current study identified the kinematic changes of the pelvis and the lower limb joints and revealed a specific synergistic multi-joint kinematic strategy to reduce tripping risks during obstacle-crossing in older long-term TCC practitioners as compared to non-TCC controls. The observed multi-joint kinematic strategies and the associated increases in toe-obstacle clearances appeared to be related to the training characteristics of TCC movements. Long-term TCC practice may be helpful for older people in reducing the risk of tripping and the subsequent loss of balance.
... The most important element is the part of the axial skeleton, with a particular emphasis on the lumbar spine. Furthermore, numerous studies [28,29,30,31] revealed that BMD Significant differences: * -p < 0.05;** -p < 0.01; *** -p < 0.001 between the groups are marked with numbers. in cyclists was 10% lower than in the control group. In some highly susceptible parts, the difference was as high as 18%. ...
Introduction. The aim of this work was to assess bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in male athletes performing weight-bearing and weight-supporting sports activities as well as in untrained men.
Material and methods. The study included 140 men aged 20-23. The study group consisted of wrestlers, football players, cyclists and untrained men. BMC (g) and BMD (g/cm2) in the lumbar spine (L2-L4) were determined with the use of the DEXA method. Biochemical parameters (concentration of osteocalcin, testosterone and 25-OH vitamin D in blood) were measured using the ELISA method. Diet composition was assessed based on three individual questionnaire interviews regarding nutrition in the last 24 hours prior to the study.
Results. Statistical analysis revealed that wrestlers demonstrated the highest levels of parameters related to bone mass. In this group, mean values of BMC, BMD as well as BMD compared to peak populational bone mass were significantly higher than in cyclists and the men from the control group. In the case of BMD (g/cm2), the difference was at the level of p < 0.001, whereas in the remaining parameters, i.e. BMC (g) and BMD with reference to age (%), it was at the level of p < 0.01. No significant differences between the groups were observed in the concentration of osteocalcin, testosterone and 25-OH vitamin D in blood and in nutrition.
Conclusions . Athletes who perform sports that predispose to the development of bone pathology should also do exercises that would support bone mineralisation and prevent osteoporosis in the future.
... In general terms, one of the main attractions of active transport modes is that they represent a sustainable and healthy option, convenient for short and medium distances when suitable conditions are provided. Walking or cycling to work, for example, not only helps to reduce transport costs but is also a good form of daily exercise and brings with it the associated positive impact on physical health (Oja et al. 2011;Celis-Morales et al. 2017;Dinu et al. 2019), mental health and wellness (Avila-Palencia et al. 2018), and increased productivity at work (Ma and Ye 2019). Furthermore, the promotion of safe active transport can have significant impacts on society. ...
Uneven distribution of employment opportunities and services, the imbalances in access to housing and job opportunities for the entire population, and the difficulties of providing access to urban services for all urban dwellers may also increase socio spatial inequalities. Chapter 3 describes emerging issues related to the tradeoff between affordable housing location and transport and the need of promoting integrated planning as essential for economic development in Latin American cities and a source of opportunities for low-income populations. Many of the urban transport projects in Latin American cities have prioritized the development of mass transit corridors, which generate better access conditions for hundreds of thousands of low-income citizens. However, in some cases these projects can have an unintended impact of decreased affordability of housing options located near the new system, making access to opportunities more difficult to the city’s poorest. The degree of displacement or gentrification associated with the introduction of mass transit corridors remains unknown given the lack of research on this topic, as indicated by the related gap in the literature. Studies in which the socioeconomic and socio-spatial distribution changes occurring due to the implementation of mass transit projects are urgently needed. Additionally, land value increments generated on property values are not often captured by the public sector to leverage the financing of mass transit projects or their expansion. The experience in the region suggests that coordination between transport and land use planning is difficult due to a mismatch and variation in the implementation and development timelines of each, low technical capacity, and a lack of funding for TOD projects. TOD projects provide the opportunity to strength the coordination between the transportation, land use planning and housing sectors. It is important that each city defines a TOD policy, with pilot projects based on the previous research into the dynamics of real estate as well as the land and housing markets, within a long term planning process that includes citizen participation. TOD pilot projects can certainly improve the integration of transportation planning and land use planning. TOD projects in the region should be employed as a strategy to promote value capture mechanisms, including cross housing subsidies in which the promotion of affordable housing near transit systems becomes a reality Affordable housing initiatives require to become more diverse and innovative in order to increase the quality of these projects through a portfolio of options linked to mass transit and other infrastructure investments that increase the accessibility for their residents. As in the case of transportation infrastructure projects, it is important that those projects include accessibility indicators to evaluate the effects of these investments on the poor. The recent experience with the implementation of Cable Cars that include slum upgrading measures, and the generation of new affordable housing units with infill development measures, constitute an innovation in the region.
... Cycling is widely considered an environmentally, societally, and economically sustainable transport mode (Woodcock et al., 2007;Reynolds et al., 2009;Buehler et al., 2017). The direct and indirect health and social benefits of cycling include reductions in physiological health risk (Chapman, 2007;de Hartog Jeroen et al., 2010;Oja et al., 2011;Reynolds et al., 2009;Woodcock et al., 2007), noise and air pollution (Woodcock et al., 2007;de Hartog Jeroen et al., 2010), space and energy consumption (Woodcock et al., 2007;Chapman, 2007), infrastructure costs (Vandenbulcke-Plasschaert, 2011), and social inequities due to improved accessibility for low-income groups (Woodcock et al., 2007). However, it is only in recent years that cycling as a practical mode of transport has gained significant attention in science and policy in large cities in the USA and Europe , including Germany (Lanzendorf & Busch-Geertsema, 2014). ...
Cycling has gained increasing interest in Germany in recent years due to its manifold environmental, societal, and economic benefits. However, the number of cyclist collisions resulting in injury or death remains high and little is known about regional variations in frequency, severity of injury, and type of collision. This study investigates spatial and temporal patterns and characteristics of cyclist collisions across Germany in 2019. Using a detailed cyclist collision dataset for most German federal states, we identified statistically significant regional differences in frequency, severity of injury, and type of collision. To facilitate this and future cyclist collision surveillance studies in Germany, we developed and published a custom R package to download and combine the collision data with geographical data. Our analysis reveals that densely populated regions exhibit higher collision rates and a higher share of collisions involving turns, but lower severity of injuries and a lower share of collisions whilst driving in a straight line, a higher collision frequency during the work week compared to weekends, and a higher collision frequency peak during morning rush hour. We also observed a markedly high share of fatal bicycle-truck collisions in densely populated regions. In contrast, rural regions show lower collision rates, but a higher share of severe collisions, a higher share of collisions whilst driving in a straight line, as well as higher collision frequencies during weekends and summer months. Our findings underscore the complex and multifaceted geographical variations in collisions involving cyclists. The results of this study suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to collision prevention infrastructure and policy may be insufficient for addressing variations in risk, and that future efforts to improve cyclist safety should be tailored to the local geographical context.
... It is worth acknowledging that although cycling contributes to a healthy lifestyle, it does not cure or stop individuals from having the abovementioned diseases. Anxiety and stress may also be reduced when pedaling, given that the body stimulates the release of endorphins which promote relaxation, and serotonin which helps to maintain a good mood; aids in motor coordination; tones muscles and strengthens joints, which prevents arthritis; among others [58,59]. It also reinforces social values such as companionship, respect, tolerance, and the feeling of belonging. ...
In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in using virtual reality (VR) to (re)create different scenarios and environments with interactive and immersive experiences. Although VR has been popular in the tourism sector to reconfigure tourists’ relationships with places and overcome mobility restrictions, its usage in senior cyclotourism has been understudied. VR is suggested to positively impact tourism promotion, cycling simulation, and active and healthy ageing due to physical and mental rehabilitation. The purpose of this study is to assess the senior citizens’ perceived experience and attitudes toward a designed 360° VR cyclotouristic experiment, using a head-mounted display (HMD) setting within a laboratory context. A total of 76 participants aged between 50 and 97 years old were involved in convergent parallel mixed-method research, and data were collected using a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model, as well as the researchers’ field notes. Findings suggest that 360° VR with HMD can be an effective assistive technology to foster senior cyclotourism by promoting tourism sites, simulating the cycling pedaling effect, and improving senior citizens’ general wellbeing and independence with physical and mental rehabilitation.
... The advantages of cycling were, of course, known before the pandemic. Indeed, there is a wide range of literature promoting cycling and walking to foster benefits in health, the environment and energy (Aldred et al., 2017;Arellana et al., 2020aArellana et al., , 2020bDeenihan and Caulfield, 2014;Götschi et al., 2016;Oja et al., 2011). ...
During the year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected mobility around the world, significantly reducing the number of trips by public transport. In this paper, we study its impact in five South American capitals (i.e., Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lima, Quito and Santiago). A decline in public transport patronage could be very bad news for these cities in the long term, particularly if users change to less sustainable modes, such as cars or motorbikes. Notwithstanding, it could be even beneficial if users selected more sustainable modes, such as active transport (e.g., bicycles and walking). To better understand this phenomenon in the short term, we conducted surveys in these five cities looking for the main explanation for changes from public transport to active and private modes in terms of user perceptions, activity patterns and sociodemographic information. To forecast people’s mode shifts in each city, we integrated both objective and subjective information collected in this study using a SEM-MIMIC model. We found five latent variables (i.e., COVID-19 impact, Entities response, Health risk, Life related activities comfort and Subjective well-being), two COVID-19 related attributes (i.e., new cases and deaths), two trip attributes (i.e., cost savings and time), and six socio-demographic attributes (i.e., age, civil status, household characteristics, income level, occupation and gender) influencing the shift from public transport to other modes. Furthermore, both the number of cases and the number of deaths caused by COVID-19 increased the probability of moving from public transport to other modes but, in general, we found a smaller probability of moving to active modes than to private modes. The paper proposes a novel way for understanding geographical and contextual similarities in the pandemic scenario for these metropolises from a transportation perspective.
... Cycling has well-established positive direct effects on health (Oja et al., 2011), however cycling related head injuries can be fatal. For protection, bicycle helmet use is associated with reduced odds of head injury, serious head injury, facial injury and fatal head injury (Olivier & Creighton, 2017). ...
... Bicycling is a healthy and sustainable mode of transport associated with a variety of physical and mental well-being benefits. Regular bicycling is associated with reduced psychological distress, improved life satisfaction, reduced all-cause mortality, and improved cardiovascular health and related risk factors (Ma et al., 2021;Oja et al., 2011). In addition, shifting from private car travel to bicycle travel contributes towards various environmental benefits such as reduced traffic congestion, pollution, and carbon emissions (Ma et al., 2021). ...
People who ride bicycles often feel unsafe and/or uncomfortable riding in various road conditions. Therefore, understanding the perceptions or experiences of bicyclists in real-world riding conditions is critical to inform interventions that enhance the experience of bike riding and therefore increase participation. A scoping review was undertaken to investigate methods used for capturing subjective experiences in the process of bicycling, or immediately post-ride. Six electronic databases and reference lists of the included studies were searched from inception to May 2021. Of the 11,904 non-duplicate articles, 53 full-text articles were included in the review. The review identified the following methods used to capture the subjective experiences: (i) on-ride method (n = 7), (ii) immediately post-ride method (n = 13), (iii) on-ride plus post-ride methods (n = 8), (iv) ride-along method (n = 4), (v) ride-along plus post-ride methods (n = 6), and (vi) intercept survey methods (n = 15). Some studies exclusively used naturalistic methods for capturing subjective experiences. There is a need to advance methods and standardise approaches to capture subjective user experiences. This is needed to ensure that we are able to understand the experiences and needs of people who ride bikes to inform the provision of safe and connected infrastructure for all ages and abilities.
... Bike riding is associated with better physical health (Nieuwenhuijsen, 2018;Oja et al., 2011), better mental wellbeing (Ma et al., 2021), and has the potential to significantly decrease traffic congestion, pollution, and greenhouse emissions (Pucher & Buehler, 2008;Pucher & Buehler, 2017). Yet despite these benefits, rates of cycling in Western nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia remain low (Avbulimen, 2018;Buehler & Pucher, 2012;Pucher et al., 2011;Transport for Victoria, 2018;Verlinden et al., 2019). ...
Feeling unsafe, stressed, and uncomfortable while bike riding are key barriers that prevent people from riding more. Examining these perceptions is important for increasing bicycling. The recent rise in wearable devices has coincided with research using bike riders’ physiological responses to measure their subjective experiences while riding. However, the types of physiological responses used to quantify bike riders’ experiences and how well these responses compare to individual perceptions of riding experience gathered through interviews or surveys remains unknown. This scoping review aimed to address these knowledge gaps and identified five key findings: i) The main physiological responses used to measure subjective rider experience were heart rate variability, heart rate, and skin conductance; ii) Where physiological and non-physiological measures of subjective experience have been compared, statistical comparisons showed weak associations and descriptive comparisons showed moderate to large degrees of variation in the number of identified moments of stress; and iii) Physiological responses were predominantly used as measurements of psychological stress. We conclude that further work is needed to determine whether physiological responses are a valid measure of subjective riding experience, and to examine a wider range of feelings that people might experience while bike riding.
Fifty years of evolution of transportation research is revisited based on bibliometric indicators of nearly 50,000 articles, the collective publication of all transportation journals. A multitude of objective indicators all consistently determined four major divisions in the field: (i) network analysis and traffic flow, (ii) economics of transportation and logistics, (iii) travel behaviour, and (iv) road safety. Trending themes of research within the abovementioned divisions respectively are: (i) macroscopic fundamental diagram and public transport network design, (ii) nil (no distinct trending topic), (iii) land-use, active transportation, residential self-selection, travel experience/satisfaction, social exclusion and transport/spatial equity, and (iv) statistical modelling of road accidents. Furthermore, clusters of research related to topics of (a) shared mobility, (b) electric mobility, and (c) autonomous mobility constitute trending topics that are each a cross between multiple divisions of the field. These outcomes document major directions to which the transportation research is headed. Additional outcome is determination of influential outsiders, seminal articles published by non-transportation journals that have proven instrumental in the development of transportation science.
We examined whether older adults who cycle outdoors regularly have better reactive balance control than noncycling older adults. Sixteen cyclist older adults and 24 age-, sex-, and health-matched controls who did not cycle (noncyclists) were exposed to unannounced perturbations of increased magnitudes in standing. We evaluated the strategies and kinematics employed at each perturbation magnitude. We found that cyclists exhibited a significantly higher stepping threshold, lower probability of stepping at each perturbation magnitude, and lower number of trials in which the participant needed to make a step to retain their balance. Cyclists also tended to recover balance using unloaded leg strategies in the first recovery step rather than a loaded leg strategy; they showed faster swing phase duration in the first recovery step, better controlling the displacement of center of mass than noncyclists. Older adults who cycle regularly outdoors preserve their reactive balance functions, which may reduce fall risks.
Bike‐sharing systems are expanding rapidly in metropolitan areas all over the world and individual systems are updated frequently over space and time to dynamically meet demand. Usage trends are important for understanding bike demand, but an overlooked issue is that of “cold starts” or the prediction of demand at a new station with no previous usage history. In this article, we explore a methodology for predicting the bike trips from and to a cold start station in the NYC Citi Bike system. Specifically, gravity‐type spatial interaction model and spatial interpolation models, including natural neighbor interpolation and kriging, are employed. The overall results come from experiments of a real‐world bike‐sharing system in NYC and indicate that the regression kriging model outperforms the other models by taking advantage of the robustness and interpretability of gravity‐type spatial interaction regression models and the capability of ordinary kriging to capture spatial dependence.
Background
Upper (UL) and lower limb (LL) cycling is extensively used for several applications, especially for rehabilitation for which neuromuscular interactions between UL and LL have been shown. Nevertheless, the knowledge on the muscular coordination modality for UL is poorly investigated and it is still not known whether those mechanisms are similar or different to those of LL. The aim of this study was thus to put in evidence common coordination mechanism between UL and LL during cycling by investigating the mechanical output and the underlying muscle coordination using synergy analysis.
Methods
Twenty-five revolutions were analyzed for six non-experts’ participants during sub-maximal cycling with UL or LL. Crank torque and muscle activity of eleven muscles UL or LL were recorded. Muscle synergies were extracted using nonnegative matrix factorization (NNMF) and group- and subject-specific analysis were conducted.
Results
Four synergies were extracted for both UL and LL. UL muscle coordination was organized around several mechanical functions (pushing, downing, and pulling) with a proportion of propulsive torque almost 80% of the total revolution while LL muscle coordination was organized around a main function (pushing) during the first half of the cycling revolution. LL muscle coordination was robust between participants while UL presented higher interindividual variability.
Discussion
We showed that a same principle of muscle coordination exists for UL during cycling but with more complex mechanical implications. This study also brings further results suggesting each individual has unique muscle signature.
Background/aim:
The head and face are prone to injury in bicycle accidents and helmets are proven to be helpful in decreasing injuries to some extent. The aim of this study was to determine whether certain craniomaxillofacial regions are at increased risk of injury (fracture) during bicycle accidents among helmeted cyclists.
Materials and methods:
This retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). Data concerning craniomaxillofacial injuries as a result of cycling accidents between 2019 and 2020 were reviewed. The primary predictor variables were the craniomaxillofacial region and a craniofacial bone. The co-variates included patient characteristics (age, gender, race) and injury characteristics (location, season). The primary outcome variable was a fracture. Logistic regression was used to determine any independent risk factors for a fracture.
Results:
Five hundred patients reported helmet use at the time of injury. Fractures of the face region were 75 times (p < .01) more likely than the head region. No particular craniofacial bone was at greater risk of fracture relative to the maxilla. Adults (OR 24.0, p < .01) and seniors (OR 38.6, p < .01) were each at greater risk for fracture relative to children.
Conclusions:
The facial region was at increased risk of fracture relative to the head during a bicycle accident. Adults and seniors were at increased risk of suffering craniofacial fractures relative to children.
Despite the wide spread of gamification as a means of influencing behavior, we do not yet fully understand its effectiveness in promoting sustainable behaviors among young people. This question becomes all the more relevant when it comes to influencing their mobility habits, considering the negative impact of motorized transportation on urban livability. As a consequence, the promotion of soft mobility has been on the policy agenda in many countries. In this study, we explore the potential of gamification and the use of rewards as a way to incentivize young citizens to adopt soft mobility over motorized transports. Our goal was to understand how a gamified app with a built-in reward system can influence the promotion of soft mobility among young people in cities, focusing particularly on walking and cycling. To achieve this, we adopted a quantitative research methodology, carrying out a structured survey in three schools enrolled in the Sharing Lisboa project. We used statistical tools based on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. We found that an app influences the users’ perception of its usefulness, leading to a positive attitude towards its use. Contrary to what was initially assumed, the reward system only influences the perceived usefulness, suggesting that it is important to convince potential users to try the system but that it does not influence their attitude. Moreover, the instrumental attitude, which is related to the benefits and functions of an app, together with the subjective (injunctive/descriptive) norms and perceived behavioral control, have a positive influence on walking/cycling travel intention. Therefore, social pressure, especially from family and friends, is important for building the intention to travel by bicycle/on foot.
Comfortable cycleways are key to the success of a cycling network. However, evaluating comfort on many cycleway links can prove challenging with regard to resource requirements. This paper evaluates cycling comfort using GPS- and accelerometer-equipped bicycles in Montréal, Laval, and Longueuil (Canada). The objective of the study was threefold. First, to present a framework for efficiently evaluating cycling comfort of many cycling infrastructure links (segments), by accounting for various sampling conditions (speed and cyclist characteristics). Second, we aimed to analyze how cycling comfort relates to cycling infrastructure type. Third, we sought to identify hot spots and cold spots of comfortable cycleway links within the study area. The results showed that the dynamic comfort index was significantly influenced by the characteristics of the cyclists themselves and by the speed at which they were traveling. Off-street bike paths were significantly less comfortable than shared lanes, bike lanes, and streets without cycling facilities. Laval had more than its share of high-comfort clusters, whereas Montréal had significantly more low-comfort clusters than its counterparts. These results should be used to improve cycleway planning and quality monitoring.
Empirical cycling data from across the world illustrates the many barriers that car-dependent cities face when implementing cycling programs and infrastructure. Most studies focus on physical criteria, while perception criteria are less addressed. The correlations between the two are still largely unknown. This paper introduces a methodology that utilises computer vision analysis techniques to evaluate 15,383 Google Street View Images (SVI) of Brisbane City against both physical and perception cycling criteria. The study seeks to better understand correlations between the quality of a street environment and an urban area's 'bicycle-friendliness'. PSPNet Image Segmentation is utilised against SVIs to determine the percentage of an image corresponding with objects and the environment related to specific cycling factors. For physical criteria, these images are then further analysed by Masked RCNN processes. For perception criteria, subjective ranking of the images is undertaken using Machine Learning (ML) techniques to score images based on survey data. The methodology effectively allows for current findings in cycling research to be further utilised in combination via computer visioning (CV) and ML applications to measure different physical elements and urban design qualities that correspond with bicycle-friendliness. Such findings can assist targeted design strategies for cities to encourage the use of safer and more sustainable modes of transport.
Resumen
Objetivo
Analizar los componentes de los ejercicios de entrenamiento de resistencia (ER) y evaluar los efectos de los mismos en la mejora de la fuerza muscular y el pico de consumo de oxígeno (VO2), sobre la base de la rehabilitación realizada en centros o domiciliaria en pacientes con reducción de la fracción de eyección por insuficiencia cardiaca (HFrEF).
Métodos
Conforme a las directrices del Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), se realizó una búsqueda de artículos a través de cinco bases de datos, incluyendo Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PEDro y Cochrane. Para realizar el metaanálisis se utilizó el software RevMan 5.3.
Resultados
Los nueve estudios de ensayos controlados aleatorizados cumplieron los criterios del estudio, incluyendo un total de 299 respondedores. En los respondedores de los centros (n = 81 para el grupo de intervención vs. n = 81 para el grupo control), el ER produjo efectos significativos tanto en la fuerza muscular de las piernas (diferencia media estandarizada [DEM] = 1,46, IC del 95%,0,41-2,50, n = 151) como de los brazos (DEM = 0,46, IC del 95%,0,05-0,87, n = 97) y el pico de VO2 (DM = 1,45 mL/kg/min, IC del 95%, 0,01-2,89, n = 114). En los respondedores domiciliarios (n = 71 para el grupo de intervención vs. n = 66 para el grupo control), el ER produjo efectos significativos tanto en la fuerza muscular de las piernas (DEM = 0,58, IC del 95%, 0,20-0,97, n = 113) como de los brazos (DEM = 0,84, IC del 95%, 0,24-1,44, n = 47) y pico de VO2 (DM = 5,43 mL/kg/min, IC del 95%, 0,23-10,62, n = 89).
Conclusión
Los ejercicios de ER podrían incrementar la fuerza muscular y el pico de VO2 tanto en la rehabilitación en centros como domiciliario, y deberían considerarse parte de los cuidados de los pacientes de HFrEF.
Automated vehicles (AVs) can improve traffic safety for vulnerable road-users like bicyclists. It is most likely that current young people will be the ones to use these vehicles and interact with them. However, very few studies have focused on bicyclist-AV interaction, with little to no inclusion of teenage bicyclists. This research used a virtual focus group study with 25 teenage bicyclists in six groups. Participants were presented with potential designs of infrastructures and communicating interfaces, they discussed pros and cons for each design, and answered multiple surveys. Overall, teenage bicyclists showed positive perceptions toward AVs. They preferred spacious lanes for bicyclists and physical barriers separating AVs and bicyclists. Teenagers chose visual interfaces with familiar icons; nevertheless, they recommended both visual and audible interfaces to ensure bicyclists’ attention and address the need of visually and audibly impaired populations. Future researchers and stakeholders will be benefited from the methodology and outcomes of this research.
The socioeconomically disadvantaged have much to gain from cycling uptake, as they are most likely to suffer transport disadvantage and be less physically active. This chapter reviews research on “cycling and socioeconomic disadvantage” from two different perspectives: (1) socioeconomic inequalities in cycling levels and (2) spatial inequalities in the provision of cycling facilities. We found evidence of variable relationships between socioeconomic disadvantage and cycling levels. In European “high-cycling” countries, all income groups seem to cycle with minor variations. In Western “low-cycling” countries such as the UK, Canada, and Australia, middle- and high-income groups tend to cycle more. By contrast, in the US, slightly higher levels of cycling among low-income groups or no significant differences were found. In South America, there is a consistent negative association between income and cycling. Education was found positively associated with cycling in Europe, North America, and Oceania, but negatively in South America. Most studies found that disadvantaged populations have lower access to cycling networks and particularly to docked-based Bike Share Schemes (BSS). Dockless BSS may, however, help to reduce geographical inequalities relative to BSS. These results lead to the conclusion that socioeconomic inequalities in cycling should receive greater consideration in research into cycling uptake and in practice, at design, implementation, and monitoring stages of interventions to enable cycling uptake. Further work is needed in a range of areas relating to cycling and socioeconomic disadvantage, including research from both perspectives—socioeconomic inequalities in cycling levels and spatial inequalities in the provision of cycling facilities—in middle- and low-income countries, new methods to reliably assess spatial inequalities in the provision of cycling facilities, more insight into trends in inequalities, and in-depth analysis of the barriers to cycling among disadvantaged populations.
Cyclists’ exposure to air and noise pollution is a growing field of study. A situation of transport injustice has been largely documented, showing that cyclists are more exposed than other road users to pollutions they do not produce themselves. Modeling cyclists’ exposures became an important issue to understand how to reduce them and how to include that issue in planning. However, many gaps are currently characterizing the field of cyclists’ exposure modeling studies: methodological discrepancy, few comparison analyses, cities in the Global South and noise exposure are both under-studied. This study fits in these gaps by proposing a comparative analysis of seven cities (Paris, Lyon, Copenhagen, Delhi, Mumbai, Montreal and Toronto) considering both noise and exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and applying a uniform methodology allowing for comparison and generalization of the results. The built models are critically analyzed, and used to map cyclists’ exposure. These maps of relative potential exposure provide interesting perspectives for planning at both the regional and local levels. We found a weak correlation between cyclists’ exposure to environmental noise and NO2. Noise depends more on characteristics of the micro-scale environment in which exposure occurs than NO2. Thus, planning to reduce cyclists’ exposure to noise can have significant effects. For NO2, the micro-scale environment only has a significant impact in Mumbai and Delhi. However, our results suggest that it might be difficult to systematically combine several dimensions of the quality of a bicycle network such as straightness, connectivity, safety, and reduced air and noise exposure.
Dietary intervention via modifications of dietary pattern or supplementations of naturally derived bioactive compounds has been considered as an efficient approach in management of nutrition related chronic diseases. Food protein-derived bioactive peptide is representative of natural compounds which show the potential to prevent or mitigate nutrition related chronic diseases. In the past decades, substantial research has been conducted concentrating on the characterization, bioavailability, and activity assessment of bioactive peptides. Although various activities of bioactive peptides have been reported, the activity testes of most peptides were only conducted in cells and animal models. Some clinical trials of bioactive peptides were also reported but only limited to antihypertensive peptides, antidiabetic peptides and peptides modulating blood lipid profile. Hereby, clinical evidence of bioactive peptides in management of nutrition-related chronic diseases is summarized in this chapter, which aims at providing implications for the clinical studies of bioactive peptides in the future.
Aims/introduction:
We aimed to investigate the association of active commuting (cycling or walking to work), as well as the association of the individual commuting modes, with the risk of diabetes in a prospective cohort of community-dwelling adults in Japan.
Material and methods:
A total of 1,270 residents aged 40-79 years were followed-up for a median of 14 years. Active commuting was defined as either cycling or walking to work. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine the association of active commuting with the risk of diabetes. Associations for different forms of active commuting (cycling, walking, and mixed modes of cycling or walking with non-active components) were also examined.
Results:
During the follow-up, 191 participants developed diabetes. Active commuting was associated with a lower risk of diabetes than non-active commuting after adjustment for potential confounders (HR 0.54, 95%CI 0.31-0.92). With regard to the commuting modes, the risk of diabetes was significantly lower in individuals who commuted by cycling alone (HR 0.46, 95%CI 0.22-0.98) and tended to be lower in individuals who commuted by walking alone (HR 0.14, 95%CI 0.02-1.02) compared to that in individuals with non-active commuting. Meanwhile, no significant associations were observed for the mixed mode of walking and non-active commuting (HR 1.69, 95%CI 0.77-3.71).
Conclusions:
Active commuting, particularly that consisting exclusively of cycling or walking, was associated with a reduced risk of diabetes. Our findings support a public health policy which promotes the choice of active commuting for the prevention of diabetes.
Introduction
Previous studies show substantial mode share effects from e-bikes. E-bike owners cycle more and drive less car than they would without access to an e-bike. Support schemes for e-bikes exist in a number of countries, but knowledge about the effect of subsidies on active transport is limited. The aim of this study is to assess the mode change and active mobility effects of a subvention scheme for e-bikes in Norway.
Methods
To boost the uptake of e-bikes, Oslo City Council introduced a subvention program (€500) for e-bike purchasers in 2016. Applicants answered to a web-survey at two time points, including a travel diary and questions about overall bicycle usage. In addition, a sub sample used an app to track all their transport activities for two following months (one period of time).
Results
The survey results from the trial group (N = 382) were compared with two control groups: one from an outside sample of individuals (N = 665) and one consisting of subvention receivers who had not yet purchased the e-bike (N = 214). The survey data shows that the cycling mode share for the trial group increased in the range of 17–22 per cent-points (depending on comparison group) after subsidised e-bike purchase, whereas the app data (comparing mode distribution according to the length of e-bike ownership) suggest a 5 to 14 per cent-point increase. For overall bicycle usage, the survey data shows a significant increase for the trial group in the range of 11.6–19.3 km, compared to the control groups.
Conclusion
The subvention led to a modal shift (i.e. more cycling) and more overall cycling activity. Our findings indicate that financial incentives may contribute to a boost in active transport, even when the subvention is of a simplistic kind that does not target specific population segments.
Active travel (walking and cycling) is increasingly being recognised as a potentially effective means of increasing physical activity levels and thereby contribute to physical and mental health. Research related to active travel typically either focuses on the determinants of active travel or its health effects. As far as the authors are aware, no studies have tried to include both sets of variables in a single empirical model. The goal of this study is to address this gap by developing and estimating a structural equation model including both spatial determinants of active travel and relevant physical and mental health outcomes. The model is estimated using aggregated data from all Dutch municipalities, 355 in total. The results indicate that the walking and cycling modal shares are consistently negatively associated with the prevalence of obesity and diabetes and positively correlated with overall physical activity. The effects are similar in size as those of sport participation. The results provide insights as to which spatial characteristics municipalities should focus on if their aim is to increase public health via active travel.
Our built environments offer distinct variables that impact behaviour—throughout the world, and equally within Western Australia. However, an in-depth analysis of extant literature indicates that influencing human behaviour is difficult in the absence of a 'disruption' event. Accordingly, this organization-level study examined the disruptive effects of relocating from a Subiaco office to a new office in Perth's Central Business District on the commute habits of its built-environment professional employees.
The relocation occurred during a "non-lockdown" period between July and August 2021 (southern hemisphere winter). The study sought to determine if an office relocation constituted a sufficient ‘disruption’ to affect employees' commute behaviours, and in contrast to state and national figures, to quantify how micro-communities revise and develop commuting habits in response to changing circumstances. It was expected that the shift would increase public transportation reliance, lengthen commute times, and increase expenditure. The study applied a two-part purposive survey using frequencies and a one-sample Chi-Square test at the 95 percent confidence level. The distance between the two locations and projected trip times through various modes was calculated using Google Maps.
The findings indicate that both Subiaco and Perth had higher public transportation utilisation when compared to state and national numbers as a multi-modal means of commuting. Furthermore, car reliance decreased and general satisfaction with commuting choices increased for the Perth study. This suggests that multi-modal public transportation commute alternatives provided a cost-effective and efficient, alternative. The study identified social value and preference propositions beyond return-on-investment for improving existing idle city assets. Lastly the study contributes to evolving contemporary cross-disciplinary discourse and body of knowledge in human geography, urban community development, and transportation, and sought to concomitantly determine the potential to further extend this research through concurrent collection of employee daily step count data. Published in Urban, Planning and Transport Research, pp. 294-310
Cycling is one of the exercises that has become popular all over the world. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the risk factors for neck pain in amateur cyclists who did not receive professional support. A structured questionnaire including demographic and cycling characteristics, cycling habits, Bournemouth Neck Questionnaire (BNQ), visual analogue scales measuring neck pain severity during rest and cycling was shared on the social networks of cycling groups. Data were collected and analyzed. Twenty-seven (25,7%) people were excluded from the study because they did not meet the criteria. In the analysis of 78 cyclists, it was observed that the mean BNQ value in individuals who cycled for more than 10 hours a week was significantly lower than those who cycled for 1-5 and 5-10 hours (p<0,001). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, it was determined that mountain bike use (OR=0,147; p=0,033) and cycling between 10-20 hours (OR=0,022; p=0,005) had the lowest risk in terms of neck pain. It was observed that personalized cycling adjustments (bike-fit) had no effect on neck pain (p=0,5). According to the results of our study, in order to prevent neck pain in amateur cyclists, it may be recommended to keep the weekly usage time between 10-20 hours, to avoid irregular, under- or excessive use, and to turn to mountain bikes for individuals with neck pain.
The aim was to identify the main geospatial indicators used in bikeability index through constructive methodological studies. The study protocol was registered in PROSPERO under the registration number CRD42020166795, following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guide. Original studies indexed in the electronic databases Lilacs, Pu-bMed, Science Direct, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, Trid, and Web of Science were selected. The review also included grey literature through Google Scholar, OpenGrey, ProQuest, and a list of references and documents pointed out by experts. After removing duplicates and analyzing titles and abstracts, the review considered only 11 out of the 703 initial papers, which provided 100 environment in-dicators with varied definitions and metrics for estimating the Bikeability index. The census tract was the most used unit of the analysis found in the papers, which used GIS (Geographic Informa-tion System) data besides self-reported information on environmental characteristics. The results indicate that the most usual indicators relate to infrastructure – existence and width of bike lanes – destination, slope, speed limit, and connectivity and intersections. The creation and maintenance of bicycle-friendly environments could consider the implementation of more infrastructure on flat and connected streets with changes in speed limits in neighborhoods, especially in regions with low density of intersections, to decrease accidents and increase cyclists’ perception of safety.
En México, la construcción del entorno urbano ha estado dominado por criterios carreteros que priorizan la eficiencia vehicular y de velocidades. Es crucial cambiar el paradigma de la calle como un medio de flujos, hacia la calle como el espacio público que es eje central de la vida urbana, y espacio de la construcción y del ejercicio de la ciudadanía. Entender la calle como espacio donde también hay vías ciclistas, banquetas, plazas públicas y arbolado lleva a considerarla como un elemento integrador para el acceso a bienes y servicios, y que permite la movilidad a nivel local y regional. De esta manera, contar con entornos urbanos caminables favorece la accesibilidad a los equipamientos y a la ciudad.
Cycling is an increasingly popular activity which is widely supported by health advocates. In the last year, more than a third of Australians used a bike [1]. While road cycling remains popular, participation in off-road recreational cycling, including mountain biking, bicycle moto cross (BMX) riding, and outdoor leisure cycling, is increasing and this is associated with an increase in the number and cost of cycling injuries [2], [3], [4], [5]. The aim of this study was to describe and compare contemporary patterns of cycling fracture requiring hospitalisation as a function of cycling mode in the Australian Capital Territory region.
This retrospective analysis of cycling-related-fracture hospitalisations in the ACT region described data recorded between July 2012 and December 2019. Logistic regression models were used to calculate probabilities of sustaining a fracture at different sites for each of the cycling modes (on-road, mountain, BMX, leisure, unspecified). These likelihoods were then compared against the on-road fracture profile.
Cycling-related-fracture hospitalisations increased by 32% in the seven years analysed. Of all fracture admissions, 442 (33%) were on-road, 658 (49%) off-road, and 242 (18%) unknown. The majority were male (79%), median age 37 (IQR 16, 52). Median length of stay was two days. The number of fractures per admission ranged from one to thirteen with a median of one. Wrist, clavicle, ribs, and skull were the four most frequent fracture sites for all cycling modes. Fracture profiles of on- and off-road accidents were similar, with the exception of wrist fractures which were more likely in off-road (OR 1.96, p < 0.01) and unspecified cycling accidents (OR 5.07, p < 0.01). Skull fractures comprised 19% of all BMX-related fractures. More than half of all fracture-related admissions required surgery.
With increasing support for sustainable and healthy transport and recreation activities, the fracture profiles of different cycling modes must first be assessed in order to inform strategies to reduce and manage this injury burden.
Background:
Adding additional bicycle and pedestrian paths to an area can lead to improved health outcomes for residents over time. However, quantitatively determining which areas benefit more from bicycle and pedestrian paths, how many miles of bicycle and pedestrian paths are needed, and the health outcomes that may be most improved remain open questions.
Objective:
Our work provides and evaluates a methodology that offers actionable insight for city-level planners, public health officials, and decision makers tasked with the question "To what extent will adding specified bicycle and pedestrian path mileage to a census tract improve residents' health outcomes over time?"
Methods:
We conducted a factor analysis of data from the American Community Survey, Center for Disease Control 500 Cities project, Strava, and bicycle and pedestrian path location and use data from two different cities (Norfolk, Virginia, and San Francisco, California). We constructed 2 city-specific factor models and used an algorithm to predict the expected mean improvement that a specified number of bicycle and pedestrian path miles contributes to the identified health outcomes.
Results:
We show that given a factor model constructed from data from 2011 to 2015, the number of additional bicycle and pedestrian path miles in 2016, and a specific census tract, our models forecast health outcome improvements in 2020 more accurately than 2 alternative approaches for both Norfolk, Virginia, and San Francisco, California. Furthermore, for each city, we show that the additional accuracy is a statistically significant improvement (P<.001 in every case) when compared with the alternate approaches. For Norfolk, Virginia (n=31 census tracts), our approach estimated, on average, the percentage of individuals with high blood pressure in the census tract within 1.49% (SD 0.85%), the percentage of individuals with diabetes in the census tract within 1.63% (SD 0.59%), and the percentage of individuals who had >2 weeks of poor physical health days in the census tract within 1.83% (SD 0.57%). For San Francisco (n=49 census tracts), our approach estimates, on average, that the percentage of individuals who had a stroke in the census tract is within 1.81% (SD 0.52%), and the percentage of individuals with diabetes in the census tract is within 1.26% (SD 0.91%).
Conclusions:
We propose and evaluate a methodology to enable decision makers to weigh the extent to which 2 bicycle and pedestrian paths of equal cost, which were proposed in different census tracts, improve residents' health outcomes; identify areas where bicycle and pedestrian paths are unlikely to be effective interventions and other strategies should be used; and quantify the minimum amount of additional bicycle path miles needed to maximize health outcome improvements. Our methodology shows statistically significant improvements, compared with alternative approaches, in historical accuracy for 2 large cities (for 2016) within different geographic areas and with different demographics.
Research has shown an increase in cycling during COVID-19. This study builds on previous work by exploring COVID’s impact on older cyclists (65+) residing in a small, auto-centric urban area. A survey (n = 198) demonstrated that, on average, cycling frequency decreased and average distance/trip increased. This suggests a less pronounced impact among older adults residing in a small urban area. However, interviews (n = 24) showed that cycling during the pandemic was associated with feelings of accomplishment, enjoyment, improved self-esteem, and increased freedom by allowing them to get out despite social distancing requirements. Further, among respondents reporting increased cycling (n=76), most (79%) plan to maintain cycling habits post-pandemic, citing reasons such as personal health, enjoyment, and the social aspect of cycling. These findings could support efforts promoting cycling among older adults, pointing to aspects for designing voluntary travel behavior change (VTBC) programs.
AbstractThe purpose of the study was to assess whether people could be motivated in a simple way to cycle regularly to and from work during one year, and to assess whether this could lead to any health-related physiological benefits.
25 persons who cycled to and from work during one year were included in the study. Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and body mass index (BMI) were measured at baseline, after six months and after one year. Total-cholesterol (TC) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL) were measured at the start and the end of the project.
During the study VO 2max increased with 15.8 %; from 32.5 (8.1: SD) to 37.1 (7.6) ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) (p < 0.001). HDL-cholesterol increased with 15.3 %; from 1.31 (0.31) to 1.51 (0.40) mmol x l(-1) (p < 0.001). No changes were recorded for BMI. The numbers of cycling sessions were greatly reduced during the winter months because of poor cycling conditions.
This study shows that cycling to and from work may positively affect physiological variables and thereby have a beneficial health effect.
[Health effects of cycling to and from work].. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44691730_Health_effects_of_cycling_to_and_from_work?_iepl%5BviewId%5D=vlhfJ5sF37zRwacB0gZJqK1c&_iepl%5BprofilePublicationItemVariant%5D=default&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=prfpi&_iepl%5BtargetEntityId%5D=PB%3A44691730&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationTitle [accessed Jul 12, 2017].
Although from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse health effects such as higher exposure to air pollution and risk of a traffic accident may prevail.Objective: We describe whether the health benefits from the increased physical activity of a modal shift for urban commutes outweigh the health risks.
We have summarized the literature for air pollution, traffic accidents, and physical activity using systematic reviews supplemented with recent key studies.
We quantified the impact on all-cause mortality when 500,000 people would make a transition from car to bicycle for short trips on a daily basis in the Netherlands. We have expressed mortality impacts in life-years gained or lost, using life table calculations. For individuals who shift from car to bicycle, we estimated that beneficial effects of increased physical activity are substantially larger (3-14 months gained) than the potential mortality effect of increased inhaled air pollution doses (0.8-40 days lost) and the increase in traffic accidents (5-9 days lost). Societal benefits are even larger because of a modest reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents.
On average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport.
There is little research on the association of lifestyle exercise, such as active commuting (walking or biking to work), with obesity, fitness, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.
This cross-sectional study included 2364 participants enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study who worked outside the home during year 20 of the study (2005-2006). Associations between walking or biking to work (self-reported time, distance, and mode of commuting) with body weight (measured height and weight); obesity (body mass index [BMI], calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, >or= 30); fitness (symptom-limited exercise stress testing); objective moderate-vigorous physical activity (accelerometry); CVD risk factors (blood pressure [oscillometric systolic and diastolic]); and serum measures (fasting measures of lipid, glucose, and insulin levels) were separately assessed by sex-stratified multivariable linear (or logistic) regression modeling.
A total of 16.7% of participants used any means of active commuting to work. Controlling for age, race, income, education, smoking, examination center, and physical activity index excluding walking, men with any active commuting (vs none) had reduced likelihood of obesity (odds ratio [OR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-0.76), reduced CVD risk: ratio of geometric mean triglyceride levels (trig(active))/(trig(nonactive)) = 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80 to 0.98); ratio of geometric mean fasting insulin (FI(active))/(FI(nonactive)) = 0.86 (95% CI, 0.78 to 0.93); difference in mean diastolic blood pressure (millimeters of mercury) (DBP(active)) - (DBP(nonactive)) = -1.67 (95% CI, -3.20 to -0.15); and higher fitness: mean difference in treadmill test duration (in seconds) in men (TT(active)) - (TT(nonactive)) = 50.0 (95% CI, 31.45 to 68.59) and women (TT(active)) - (TT(nonactive)) = 28.77 (95% CI, 11.61 to 45.92).
Active commuting was positively associated with fitness in men and women and inversely associated with BMI, obesity, triglyceride levels, blood pressure, and insulin level in men. Active commuting should be investigated as a modality for maintaining or improving health.
Cycling is an affordable, convenient and achievable form of physical activity for all Australians.
This study was designed to examine the relationship between active transportation (defined as the percentage of trips taken by walking, bicycling, and public transit) and obesity rates (BMI > or = 30 kg . m-2) in different countries.
National surveys of travel behavior and health indicators in Europe, North America, and Australia were used in this study; the surveys were conducted in 1994 to 2006. In some cases raw data were obtained from national or federal agencies and then analyzed, and in other cases summary data were obtained from published reports.
Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates. Europeans walked more than United States residents (382 versus 140 km per person per year) and bicycled more (188 versus 40 km per person per year) in 2000.
Walking and bicycling are far more common in European countries than in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Active transportation is inversely related to obesity in these countries. Although the results do not prove causality, they suggest that active transportation could be one of the factors that explain international differences in obesity rates.
Leisure-time physical activity can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, but the potential effect of different types of physical activity is still uncertain. This study is to examine the relationship of occupational, commuting and leisure-time physical activity with the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.
We prospectively followed 6898 Finnish men and 7392 women of 35 to 64 years of age without a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, or diabetes at baseline. Hazards ratios of incidence of Type 2 diabetes were estimated by levels of occupational, commuting, and leisure-time physical activity.
During a mean follow-up of 12 years, there were 373 incident cases of Type 2 diabetes. In both men and women combined, the hazards ratios of diabetes associated with light, moderate and active work were 1.00, 0.70 and 0.74 (p=0.020 for trend) after adjustment for confounding factors (age, study year, sex, systolic blood pressure, smoking, education, the two other types of physical activity and BMI). The multivariate-adjusted hazards ratios of diabetes with none, 1 to 29, and more than 30 min of walking or cycling to and from work were 1.00, 0.96, and 0.64 (p=0.048 for trend). The multivariate-adjusted hazards ratios of diabetes for low, moderate, high levels of leisure-time physical activity were 1.00, 0.67, and 0.61 (p=0.001 for trend); after additional adjustment for BMI, the hazards ratio was no longer significant.
Moderate and high occupational, commuting or leisure-time physical activity independently and significantly reduces risk of Type 2 diabetes among the middle-aged general population.
Colon cancer incidence rates have been rapidly increasing in Shanghai, China, for reasons still unclear. Low physical activity is a known risk factor for colon cancer. The authors examined the effects of physical activity, particularly commuting physical activity, and its joint effects with body mass index on colon cancer risk in a population-based, case-control study. The study included 931 incident colon cancer patients and 1,552 randomly selected controls in Shanghai between 1990 and 1993. Colon cancer risk was significantly reduced among subjects with high commuting physical activity (odds ratio (OR) = 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.27, 0.87 for men; OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.91 for women), particularly among those who had high commuting physical activity for at least 35 years (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.76 for men; OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.72 for women). Commuting physical activity significantly modified the risk conferred by high body mass index, with the highest risk observed among those at the highest quintile of body mass index and the lowest activity level (OR = 6.43, 95% CI: 1.82, 8.54 for men; OR = 7.42, 95% CI: 2.84, 10.01 for women). Our results suggest that regular and frequent physical activity over a long period of time protects from colon cancer and significantly modifies the body mass index-associated risk.
This investigation described the effects of exercise, walking, and cycling for transportation, as well as the effect of overall
nonexercise physical activity, on mortality in the Shanghai Women's Health Study (1997–2004). Women without heart disease,
stroke, or cancer were followed for an average of 5.7 years (n = 67,143), and there were 1,091 deaths from all causes, 537 deaths from cancer, and 251 deaths from cardiovascular diseases.
Information about physical activity and relevant covariates was obtained by interview. Proportional hazards models were used
to estimate adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Exercise and cycling for transportation were both inversely
and independently associated with all-cause mortality (ptrend < 0.05), but walking for transportation was less strongly associated with reduced risk (ptrend = 0.07). Women reporting no regular exercise but who reported 10 or more metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/day of nonexercise
activity were at 25–50% reduced risk (ptrend < 0.01) relative to less active women (0–9.9 MET-hours/day). Among women reporting the least nonexercise activity (0–9.9
MET-hours/day) but reporting regular exercise participation, exercise was associated with reduced mortality (hazard ratio
= 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.62, 0.99). These findings add new evidence that overall physical activity levels are an
important determinant of longevity, and that health benefit can be obtained through an active lifestyle, exercise, or combinations
of both.
The purpose was to examine (1) the effect of cycling to work on physical performance; (2) the minimum weekly energy expenditure needed for fitness improvement based on the dose-response relationship between total caloric expenditure and fitness changes. Healthy, untrained men and women, who did not cycle to work, participated in a 1-year intervention study. Sixty-five subjects were asked to cycle to work at least three times a week. Fifteen subjects were asked not to change their living habits. All measurements were performed on three consecutive occasions, with 6 months in between. Maximal external power (P(max)), heart rate, respiratory exchange ratio and peak oxygen uptake (VO(2peak)) were assessed. Cycling characteristics and leisure time physical activities were reported in a dairy. A significant change over time between both groups was seen for VO(2peak) (/kg) in the total group and the women and for P(max) in the total group. Correlations were found between VO(2peak) (/kg) (r>/=0.40) and kcal/week and min/week. Preliminary results indicate that the minimum expended energy needed for the improvement of indexes of fitness is higher for men compared with women.
Background:
Although the benefit of physical activity on cardiovascular health has been well demonstrated, being physically active can be difficult for health care workers. Active commuting such as walking or cycling may be a good way to promote physical activity.
Aims:
To investigate the relationship between active commuting and cardiovascular disease risk factors in health care workers.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study of health care workers conducted in Chiang Mai University Hospital, Thailand. Information on demographics and lifestyle, including active commuting, was obtained from questionnaires. Results were analysed with multiple logistic regression, adjusting for other physical activity and possible confounders.
Results:
Among 3204 participants, fewer than half engaged in active commuting. After adjustment for poss ible confounders, low active commuting was associated with increased risk of hypertension [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-1.7]. High active commuting was associated with central obesity (aOR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-1.8). Compared with non-active commuters, younger active commuters (aged under 40) had reduced prevalence of hypertension (aOR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-1.0), while older active commuters (aged 40 or over) demonstrated increased hypertension (aOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.3) and central obesity (aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.1).
Conclusions:
We found conflicting evidence on the relationship between active commuting and cardiovascular risk factors. Reverse causation may explain the association between active commuting and hypertension and central obesity and should be investigated further.
Sixty-eight previously sedentary volunteers (38 men and 30 women) were randomly divided into active and control groups and subjected to a 10-week programme of walking or cycling while commuting to and from work. The active commuters and the controls complied with the programme on 75-78% and 92% that of cycling 10 km. Cardiorespiratory strain of approximately 50% of maximal oxygen uptake V̇(O2) (max) in walking and 60% of V̇(O2max) in cycling was observed. Statistically consistent improvements caused by active commuting were seen in cardiorespiratory responses to both maximal and submaximal work and in metabolic response to submaximal work. Cycling was more effective than walking. These findings indicate that low-intensity walking and cycling to and from work improved cardiorespiratory and metabolic fitness.
Context Studies have shown an inverse relationship between exercise and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), but data on type and intensity are sparse. Objective To assess the amount, type, and intensity of physical activity in relation to risk of CHD among men. Design, Setting, and Participants A cohort of 44452 US men enrolled in the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study, followed up at 2-year intervals from 1986 through January 31, 1998, to assess potential CHD risk factors, identify newly diagnosed cases of CHD, and assess levels of leisure-time physical activity. Main Outcome Measure Incident nonfatal myocardial infarction or fatal CHD occurring during the follow-up period. Results During 475755 person-years, we documented 1700 new cases of CHD. Total physical activity, running, weight training, and rowing were each inversely associated with risk of CHID. The RRs (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) corresponding to quintiles of metabolic equivalent tasks (METs) for total physical activity adjusted for age, smoking, and other cardiovascular risk factors were 1.0, 0.90 (0.78-1.04), 0.87 (0.75-1.00), 0.83 (0.71-0.96), and 0.70 (0.59-0.82) (P<.001 for trend). Men who ran for an hour or more per week had a 42% risk reduction (RR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44-0.77) compared with men who did not run (P<.001 for trend). Men who trained with weights for 30 minutes or more per week had a 23% risk reduction (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98) compared with men who did not train with weights (P=.03 for trend). Rowing for 1 hour or more per week was associated with an 18% risk reduction (RR, 0.82; 05% CI, 0.68-0.99). Average exercise intensity was associated with reduced CHD risk independent of the total volume of physical activity. The RRs (95% CIs) corresponding to moderate (4-6 MET's) and high (6-12 METs) activity intensities were 0.94 (0.83-1.04) and 0.83 (0.72-0.97) compared with low activity intensity (<4 ME Ts) (P=.02 for trend). A half-hour per day or more of brisk walking was associated with an 18% risk reduction (RR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.67-1.00). Walking pace was associated with reduced CHD risk independent of the number of walking hours. Conclusions Total physical activity, running, weight training, and walking were each associated with reduced CHID risk. Average exercise intensity was associated with reduced risk independent of the number of MET-hours spent in physical activity.
Background There is convincing evidence that regular physical activity reduces risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among men. However, only a few studies have been conducted among women. Most previous studies have focused on the effects of leisure-time physical activity on cardiovascular risk factors, without considering the impact of occupational or commuting physical activity.
Sixty-eight previously sedentary volunteers (38 men and 30 women) were randomly divided into active and control groups and subjected to a 10-week programme of walking or cycling while commuting to and from work. The active commuters and the controls complied with the programme on 75–78% and 92% of the workdays, respectively. The mean walking distance was 3.5 km and that of cycling 10 km. Cardiorespiratory strain of approximately 50% of maximal oxygen uptake V̇O2max in walking and 60% of V̇O2max in cycling was observed. Statistically consistent improvements caused by active commuting were seen in cardiorespiratory responses to both maximal and submaximal work and in metabolic response to submaximal work. Cycling was more effective than walking. These findings indicate that low-intensity walking and cycling to and from work improved cardiorespiratory and metabolic fitness.
Background: Physical activity is inversely related to cardiovascular diseases. However, the type of activities that contribute most to these beneficial effects remain unclear. For this reason, we investigated self-reported leisure time physical activities in relation to fatal/nonfatal cardiovascular disease incidence. Design: The Dutch Monitoring Project on Risk Factors for Chronic Diseases Study, carried out between 1993 and 1997, is a prospective cohort study of over 23 000 men and women aged 20-65 years from the general Dutch population. Methods: From 1994 till 1997 physical activity was assessed with a questionnaire in 7451 men and 8991 women who were followed for an average of 9.8 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used adjusting for age, sex, other physical activities, smoking, alcohol consumption, and educational level. Results: Almost the entire study population (97%) was engaged in walking, about 75% in regular cycling, and about half the population in sports or gardening. Cycling [hazard ratio (HR): 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71-0.95] and sports (HR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.64-0.87) were both inversely related to cardiovascular disease incidence, whereas walking and gardening were not. For sports (P<0.001), but not for cycling (P=0.06), we found a dose-response relationship with respect to cardiovascular disease incidence. Engaging in both cycling and sports resulted in an even greater risk reduction (HR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.52-0.77). Conclusion: In this relatively active population, types of activities of at least moderate intensity, such as cycling and sports were associated with lower CVD incidence, whereas activities of lower intensity, such as walking and gardening, were not
To our knowledge, research has not been conducted on bicycle riding and weight control in comparison with walking. Our objective was to assess the association between bicycle riding and weight control in premenopausal women.
This was a 16-year follow-up study of 18,414 women in the Nurses' Health Study II. Weight change between 1989 and 2005 was the primary outcome, and the odds of gaining more than 5% of baseline body weight by 2005 was the secondary outcome.
At baseline, only 39% of participants walked briskly, while only 1.2% bicycled for more than 30 min/d. For a 30-min/d increase in activity between 1989 and 2005, weight gain was significantly less for brisk walking (-1.81 kg; 95% confidence interval [CI], -2.05 to -1.56 kg), bicycling (-1.59 kg; 95% CI, -2.09 to -1.08 kg), and other activities (-1.45 kg; 95% CI, -1.66 to -1.24 kg) but not for slow walking (+0.06 kg; 95% CI, -0.22 to 0.35 kg). Women who reported no bicycling in 1989 and increased to as little as 5 min/d in 2005 gained less weight (-0.74 kg; 95% CI, -1.41 to -0.07 kg; P value for trend, <.01) than those who remained nonbikers. Normal-weight women who bicycled more than 4 h/wk in 2005 had a lower odds of gaining more than 5% of their baseline body weight (odds ratio, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.98) compared with those who reported no bicycling; overweight and obese women had a lower odds at 2 to 3 h/wk (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.86).
Bicycling, similar to brisk walking, is associated with less weight gain and an inverse dose-response relationship exists, especially among overweight and obese women. Future research should focus on brisk walking and greater time spent bicycling.
Physical activity is inversely related to cardiovascular diseases. However, the type of activities that contribute most to these beneficial effects remain unclear. For this reason, we investigated self-reported leisure time physical activities in relation to fatal/nonfatal cardiovascular disease incidence.
The Dutch Monitoring Project on Risk Factors for Chronic Diseases Study, carried out between 1993 and 1997, is a prospective cohort study of over 23000 men and women aged 20–65 years from the general Dutch population.
From 1994 till 1997 physical activity was assessed with a questionnaire in 7451 men and 8991 women who were followed for an average of 9.8 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used adjusting for age, sex, other physical activities, smoking, alcohol consumption, and educational level.
Almost the entire study population (97%) was engaged in walking, about 75% in regular cycling, and about half the population in sports or gardening. Cycling [hazard ratio (HR): 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71–0.95] and sports (HR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.64–0.87) were both inversely related to cardiovascular disease incidence, whereas walking and gardening were not. For sports (P < 0.001), but not for cycling (P = 0.06), we found a dose - response relationship with respect to cardiovascular disease incidence. Engaging in both cycling and sports resulted in an even greater risk reduction (HR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.52–0.77).
In this relatively active population, types of activities of at least moderate intensity, such as cycling and sports were associated with lower CVD incidence, whereas activities of lower intensity, such as walking and gardening, were not.
It is the purpose of this study to systematically review the evidence of school-based interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviour in primary (6-12 years old) and secondary school (12-18 years old) children in Europe. Eleven studies (reported in 27 articles) met the inclusion criteria, six in primary school and five in secondary school children. Interventions were evaluated in terms of behavioural determinants, behaviour (diet and physical activity) and weight-related outcomes (body mass index [BMI] or other indicators of obesity). The results suggest that combining educational and environmental components that focus on both sides of the energy balance give better and more relevant effects. Furthermore, computer-tailored personalized education in the classroom showed better results than a generic classroom curriculum. Environmental interventions might include organized physical activities during breaks, or before and after school; improved availability of physical activity opportunities in and around the school environment; increased physical education lesson time; improved availability or accessibility of healthy food options; and restricted availability and accessibility of unhealthy food options. More high-quality studies are needed to assess obesity-related interventions in Europe.
Few middle-aged and elderly people get enough exercise from sports or leisure-time physical activity. Therefore, the impact of everyday physical activity on health is a matter of interest. The main objective of this study was to establish whether bicycle use in everyday life is positively associated with health. A sample of 982 randomly selected men and 1,020 women age 50-70 were asked in a computer-assisted telephone interview to provide information including a self-assessment of their health and physical activity. Self-assessed health correlates positively with bicycle use in everyday life (OR = 1.257; 95% CI: 1.031-1.532). Likewise, people who regularly cycle for transport are less likely to have medical risk factors (OR = 0.794; 95% CI: 0.652-0.967). This negative correlation is not diminished when sporting activity is controlled for. This indicates that positive effects of physical activity on risk factors can be also achieved solely by integrating more physical activity into routine everyday life.
The purpose of this study was to describe the association of the overall and domain-specific physical activity on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. A large body of epidemiological evidence suggests a strong and consistent inverse association between physical activity and mortality risk. However, it is unclear how this association varies according to the domain of life in which the activity takes place.
In an English population-based cohort of 14,903 participants (mean age = 63 yr), total and domain-specific physical activity was assessed using a validated questionnaire (EPAQ2). After a median follow-up of 7 yr, there were 1128 deaths, with 370 from cardiovascular disease.
The relative risks (95% confidence interval) for all-cause mortality due to physical activity undertaken at home, during exercise, at work, for transport, and in total were 0.81 (0.66-0.99), 0.66 (0.54-0.80), 0.84 (0.55-1.30), 0.82 (0.67-1.00), and 0.77 (0.61-0.98), respectively, after adjustment for baseline age, sex, social class, alcohol consumption, smoking status, history of diabetes, history of cancer, and history of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Cardiovascular mortality was inversely associated with physical activity undertaken at home (P for trend = 0.03), during exercise (P for trend = 0.001), and in total (P for trend = 0.007). The results were unchanged after excluding individuals with a history of heart disease, stroke, and cancer at baseline and those who died within the first 2 yr of follow-up.
In this study, physical activities at home and during exercise are associated with lower risk of mortality, whereas occupational and transportation-related activities are not. Promoting the potential benefits of physical activity undertaken at home and during exercise may be an important public health message for aging populations.
This brief review examines whether active commuting is an effective method of controlling the current obesity epidemic and enhancing the cardiovascular health of the population. Of the many potential methods of active commuting, walking and cycling are the usual choices. Children and adolescents prefer cycling, but for adults issues of safety, cycle storage and company dress codes make walking the preferred option, particularly in North American cities, where urban design and weather conditions often do not favour cycling. Active transportation is more frequent in some European countries with dedicated cycle and pedestrian paths, but in most developed societies, active transportation has declined in recent years.
Attempts to increase walking behaviour in the sedentary population have had only limited success to date. A weekly gross energy expenditure of at least 4 MJ is recommended to reduce all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. This can be achieved by walking 1.9 km in 22 minutes twice per day, 5 days per week, or by cycling at 16 km/h for 11 minutes twice per day, 5 days per week. When engaged in level walking, the intensity of effort may be adequate for cardiovascular benefit in older adults, but in fit young workers, it is necessary to either increase the pace or choose a hilly route in order to induce cardio-respiratory benefit; in contrast, cycling is likely to provide an adequate cardiovascular stimulus even for young adults.
Empirical data to date have yielded mixed results: a reduced all-cause and cardiovascular mortality has been observed more frequently in cyclists than in walkers, and more frequently in women and older men than in young active commuters. More information is needed concerning the typical weekly dose of activity provided by active commuting, and the impact of such commuting on overall attitudes towards physical activity. It is also necessary to find better methods of involving the sedentary population, through both counselling and changes in urban design.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of commuter cycling on physical performance. Eighty-seven male and 35 female employees volunteered to cycle regularly to their work.
Sixty-one participants went commuter cycling for 1 yr (cycling group); the others cycled only in the second half year (control group). A maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer was carried out at the start of the study, after 6 months, and after 1 yr to measure maximal external power (Wmax) and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max).
After the first 6 months of commuter cycling, with a mean single trip distance of 8.5 km and a mean frequency of more than three times a week, a significant increase of 13% was found in the Wmax per kilogram body weight (Wmax x kg(-1)) in both sexes of the cycling group. The improvement in VO2max x kg(-1) was significant for the male participants (6%) but not for the female participants (-2%). At the end of the second half year, the control group also showed a mean gain in Wmax x kg(-1) of 13%. Their VO2max x kg(-1) declined in the first half year, but this was counteracted in the second half year. A dose-response relationship was found between two independent variables and the physical performance; the lower the physical performance at the start of the study and the higher the total amount of kilometers cycled, the higher the gain in Wmax. For subjects with a low initial fitness level, a single trip distance of only 3 km turned out to be enough to improve physical performance.
Commuter cycling can yield much the same improvement in physical performance as specific training programs.
Physical activity is associated with low mortality in men, but little is known about the association in women, different age groups, and everyday activity.
To evaluate the relationship between levels of physical activity during work, leisure time, cycling to work, and sports participation and all-cause mortality.
Prospective study to assess different types of physical activity associated with risk of mortality during follow-up after the subsequent examination. Mean follow-up from examination was 14.5 years.
Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Participants were 13,375 women and 17,265 men, 20 to 93 years of age, who were randomly selected. Physical activity was assessed by self-report, and health status, including blood pressure, total cholesterol level, triglyceride levels, body mass index, smoking, and educational level, was evaluated.
All-cause mortality.
A total of 2,881 women and 5,668 men died. Compared with the sedentary, age- and sex-adjusted mortality rates in leisure time physical activity groups 2 to 4 were 0.68 (95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.71), 0.61 (95% confidence interval, 0.57-0.66), and 0.53 (95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.68), respectively, with no difference between sexes and age groups. Within the moderately and highly active persons, sports participants experienced only half the mortality of nonparticipants. Bicycling to work decreased risk of mortality in approximately 40% after multivariate adjustment, including leisure time physical activity.
Leisure time physical activity was inversely associated with all-cause mortality in both men and women in all age groups. Benefit was found from moderate leisure time physical activity, with further benefit from sports activity and bicycling as transportation.
To examine the influence of physical activity on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (W) and body mass changes (DeltaBMI) in middle-aged men, with special regard to moderate-intensity activities.
Longitudinal study of adults who participated in the PRIME Study.
A cohort of 8865 men aged 50-59 y, free of coronary heart disease.
BMI and W at baseline, body mass changes over a 5 y period. Detailed baseline assessment of net energy expenditure due to physical activity (PAE) in the preceding year, according to category of activity, by means of the MOSPA Questionnaire. PAE was expressed in weekly metabolic equivalent scores (MET h/week).
After adjustment for confounders, the multiple regression analyses indicated that BMI, W and DeltaBMI were inversely associated with PAE spent in getting to work (P<10(-5), <10(-5) and 0.04, respectively) and practice of high-intensity (>or=6 MET) recreational activities (<0.01, <10(-5) and <0.01). Men who regularly spent more than 10 MET h/week in walking or cycling to work had a mean BMI, W and DeltaBMI respectively 0.3 kg/m(2), 1 cm and 0.06 kg/m(2) lower than those who did not expend energy in getting to work. In the subgroup of subjects who did not perform high-intensity activities, the level of recreational PAE was inversely associated with BMI and W but not with subsequent weight-gain.
These findings indicate that, in middle-aged men, physical activities of moderate-intensity, which are probably easier to promote than more vigorous activities and, in particular, a more current daily activity, walking or cycling to work, may have a favourable effect on body fat markers and body mass gain.
Studies have shown an inverse relationship between exercise and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), but data on type and intensity are sparse.
To assess the amount, type, and intensity of physical activity in relation to risk of CHD among men.
A cohort of 44 452 US men enrolled in the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study, followed up at 2-year intervals from 1986 through January 31, 1998, to assess potential CHD risk factors, identify newly diagnosed cases of CHD, and assess levels of leisure-time physical activity.
Incident nonfatal myocardial infarction or fatal CHD occurring during the follow-up period.
During 475 755 person-years, we documented 1700 new cases of CHD. Total physical activity, running, weight training, and rowing were each inversely associated with risk of CHD. The RRs (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) corresponding to quintiles of metabolic equivalent tasks (METs) for total physical activity adjusted for age, smoking, and other cardiovascular risk factors were 1.0, 0.90 (0.78-1.04), 0.87 (0.75-1.00), 0.83 (0.71-0.96), and 0.70 (0.59-0.82) (P<.001 for trend). Men who ran for an hour or more per week had a 42% risk reduction (RR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44-0.77) compared with men who did not run (P<.001 for trend). Men who trained with weights for 30 minutes or more per week had a 23% risk reduction (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98) compared with men who did not train with weights (P =.03 for trend). Rowing for 1 hour or more per week was associated with an 18% risk reduction (RR, 0.82; 05% CI, 0.68-0.99). Average exercise intensity was associated with reduced CHD risk independent of the total volume of physical activity. The RRs (95% CIs) corresponding to moderate (4-6 METs) and high (6-12 METs) activity intensities were 0.94 (0.83-1.04) and 0.83 (0.72-0.97) compared with low activity intensity (<4 METs) (P =.02 for trend). A half-hour per day or more of brisk walking was associated with an 18% risk reduction (RR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.67-1.00). Walking pace was associated with reduced CHD risk independent of the number of walking hours.
Total physical activity, running, weight training, and walking were each associated with reduced CHD risk. Average exercise intensity was associated with reduced risk independent of the number of MET-hours spent in physical activity.
To assess what interventions are effective in promoting a population shift from using cars towards walking and cycling and to assess the health effects of such interventions.
Published and unpublished reports in any language identified from electronic databases, bibliographies, websites, and reference lists.
Systematic search and appraisal to identify experimental or observational studies with a prospective or controlled retrospective design that evaluated any intervention applied to an urban population or area by measuring outcomes in members of the local population.
22 studies met the inclusion criteria. We found some evidence that targeted behaviour change programmes can change the behaviour of motivated subgroups, resulting (in the largest study) in a shift of around 5% of all trips at a population level. Single studies of commuter subsidies and a new railway station also showed positive effects. The balance of best available evidence about publicity campaigns, engineering measures, and other interventions suggests that they have not been effective. Participants in trials of active commuting experienced short term improvements in certain measures of health and fitness, but we found no good evidence on effects on health of any effective intervention at population level.
The best available evidence of effectiveness in promoting a modal shift is for targeted behaviour change programmes, but the social distribution of their effects is unclear and some other types of intervention have yet to be rigorously evaluated.
Although previous studies suggest that physical activity may reduce the risk of hypertension, the role of daily life activity in the development of hypertension remains unclear.
The study population included 2548 Japanese male office workers aged 35 to 59 years, who were without hypertension (systolic blood pressure [SBP] <140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure [DBP] <90 mm Hg, and no medication for hypertension) and had no history of cardiovascular disease. Daily life energy expenditure was estimated by a 1-day activity record during an ordinary weekday at study entry. Blood pressures were measured at periodic annual health examinations over 7 successive years.
After controlling for potential predictors of hypertension (age, family history of hypertension, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, regular physical exercise at entry, and change in body mass index during the follow-up period), mean SBP and DBP in each follow-up year decreased as daily life energy expenditure increased. With additional adjustment for SBP at entry, the relative risk of hypertension (SBP > or =140 mm Hg and/or DBP > or =90 mm Hg or medication for hypertension) across quartiles of daily life energy expenditure (lowest to highest) were 1.00, 0.84, 0.75, and 0.54 (P<.001 for trend). Analyses by presence or absence of a risk factor demonstrated that the risk of hypertension was inversely related to daily life energy expenditure in men at either low or high risk of hypertension. Daily life energy expenditure was also associated with reduced risk of hypertension for subjects in all 3 categories of normotension: low normal, normal, and high normal.
Increased daily life activity is effective for the prevention of hypertension, and this benefit applies to men at either low or high risk of hypertension.
The role of physical activity, especially that of occupational and commuting physical activity, in the prediction of stroke risk is not properly established. We assessed the relationship of different types of physical activity with total and type-specific stroke risk.
We prospectively followed 47 721 Finnish subjects 25 to 64 years of age without a history of coronary heart disease, stroke, or cancer at baseline. Hazard ratios (HRs) for incident stroke were estimated for different levels of leisure time, occupational, and commuting physical activity.
During a mean follow-up of 19.0 years, 2863 incident stroke events were ascertained. The multivariate-adjusted (age, sex, area, study year, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and other 2 types of physical activity) HRs associated with low, moderate, and high leisure time physical activity were 1.00, 0.86, and 0.74 (Ptrend<0.001) for total stroke, 1.00, 0.87, and 0.46 (Ptrend=0.011) for subarachnoid hemorrhage, 1.00, 0.77, and 0.63 (Ptrend=0.024) for intracerebral hemorrhage, and 1.00, 0.87, and 0.80 (Ptrend=0.001) for ischemic stroke, respectively. The multivariate-adjusted HRs associated with none, 1 to 29, and > or =30 minutes of active commuting were 1.00, 0.92, and 0.89 (Ptrend=0.043) for total stroke, and 1.00, 0.93, and 0.86 (Ptrend=0.028) for ischemic stroke, respectively. Occupational activity had a modest association with ischemic stroke in the multivariate analysis (Ptrend=0.046).
A high level of leisure time physical activity reduces the risk of all subtypes of stroke. Daily active commuting also reduces the risk of ischemic stroke.