A Case-crossover Study: The Effects of Heat Waves on Daily Mortality Caused by Respiratory Disease in Beijing

By Ling Liu, Yun Zhou, Jin-liang Zhang. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 2011

978 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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 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. 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 estimate 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 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.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f36ef4ae54a73e318dda42b2cf14720f07128603

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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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Citations in the corpus

Gender Equality and Women’s Participation in Transport Cycling (2017, neutral): “However, the health benefits of cycling are substantially larger than the potential mortality effect of greater exposure to air pollution and the increase in traffic accidents (de Hartog et al., 2010).”
Urban energy systems within the transition to sustainable development. A research agenda for urban metabolism (2017, neutral): “As an example, changing infrastructure and urban planning can lead to a decrease in car use in dense urban areas, and by doing so reducing health risks to city dwellers (Jackson, 2003; Heath et al., 2006; de Hartog et al., 2010; Tight et al., 2011).”
Improving health through policies that promote active travel: a review of evidence to support integrated health impact assessment. (2011, background): “(2009) or de Hartog et al. (2010). Quantifying risks of traffic injuries due to mode shifts to cycling and walking is feasible because”
Inequalities in the London bicycle sharing system revisited: impacts of extending the scheme to poorer areas but then doubling prices (2014, positive): “Successfully promoting cycling is expected to confer important transport, health and environmental benefits (de Hartog et al., 2010; Maizlish et al., 2013; Woodcock et al., 2013).”
The economic contribution of public bike-share to the sustainability and efficient functioning of cities (2017, neutral): “In a review of various health implications, de Hartog et al. (2010) find that, overall, the health benefits of physical exercise outweigh the risks from exposure to air pollution or traffic accidents.”
Expert position paper on air pollution and cardiovascular disease. (2015, background): “travel by walking, cycling, and public transportation should be preferred to car or motorbike.(97)”