Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: urban land transport.

By J. Woodcock, P. Edwards, C. Tonne, Ben Armstrong, O. Ashiru, David Banister, S. Beevers, Z. Chalabi, Z. Chowdhury, A. Cohen and 9 more. The Lancet, 2009

1,114 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We used Comparative Risk Assessment methods to estimate the health effects of alternative urban land transport scenarios for two settings-London, UK, and Delhi, India. For each setting, we compared a business-as-usual 2030 projection (without policies for reduction of greenhouse gases) with alternative scenarios-lower-carbon-emission motor vehicles, increased active travel, and a combination of the two. We developed separate models that linked transport scenarios with physical activity, air pollution, and risk of road traffic injury. In both cities, we noted that reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through an increase in active travel and less use of motor vehicles had larger health benefits per million population (7332 disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs] in London, and 12 516 in Delhi in 1 year) than from the increased use of lower-emission motor vehicles (160 DALYs in London, and 1696 in Delhi). However, combination of active travel and lower-emission motor vehicles would give the largest benefits (7439 DALYs in London, 12 995 in Delhi), notably from a reduction in the number of years of life lost from ischaemic heart disease (10-19% in London, 11-25% in Delhi). Although uncertainties remain, climate change mitigation in transport should benefit public health substantially. Policies to increase the acceptability, appeal, and safety of active urban travel, and discourage travel in private motor vehicles would provide larger health benefits than would policies that focus solely on lower-emission motor vehicles.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/989845443d587539e989729dab0fbd4b4ae018fc

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Citations in the corpus

Determinants of urban mobility in India: Lessons for promoting sustainable and inclusive urban transportation in developing countries (2016, background): “In addition to being climate friendly, walking and cycling could bring tremendous health cobenefits in an increasing obese population with physical inactivity (Woodcock et al., 2009).”
Autonomous Vehicles: Developing a Public Health Research Agenda to Frame the Future of Transportation Policy (2017, background): “…urban planners and public health researchers have come together to analyze these implications in the development of transportation policy (e.g., Boehmer et al., 2016; Boniface et al., 2015; Frank et al., 2006; Krzyzanowski et al., 2005; Mindell, 2014; Morrison et al., 2003; Woodcock et al., 2009).”
Evolving Narratives of Low-Carbon Futures in Transportation (2016, background): “In two cases studies of London and New Delhi — focusing on improving public health — a modal shift from car and motorcycle toward active travel (walking and cycling) would reduce GHG emissions by 38% and 47%, respectively, in 2030 (Woodcock et al., 2009).”
Evaluation of the Impact of Bus Rapid Transit on Air Pollution (2015, background): “Three-quarters of transport-related emissions are from road traffic” (Woodcock et al., 2009, p. 2).”
Future energy use and CO2 emissions of urban passenger transport in China: A travel behavior and urban form based approach (2018, background): “Urban passenger transportation has received increasing concern for its impact on global warming, urban pollution, physical (in)activity, and human health [1-4].”
Improving health through policies that promote active travel: a review of evidence to support integrated health impact assessment. (2011, background): “At the same time, concerns have been raised about the potential to increase the risks of injuries and exposure to air pollution for pedestrians and cyclists (de Hartog et al., 2010; de Nazelle et al., 2009; WHO, 2006; Woodcock et al., 2009).”