35
ISSUES: Fitness & Health
Chapter 3: Tackling physical inactivity
safely. Action that can encourage this
includes developing a school travel
plan, providing training and practical
support to promote safe cycling,
developing walking buses and other
partnership work between schools,
parents and carers, communities and
the local authority.
13
Some
areas
have
also
been
experimenting with allowing street
closures (‘street play’) for set periods
of time on a regular basis to encourage
children to be able to play actively,
independently and safely near their
own front door. This can help improve
children’s
confidence,
self-esteem
and resilience as well as encouraging
physical activity.
14
An evaluation of
play streets in Hackney found that
the initiative led to an estimated 8,140
child-hours of outdoor play across 29
streets in a 12-month period. Some
1,600 children were involved.
15
Older adults and people with
disabilities
The built environment is key to
maintaining
independence
and
mobility.
16
Factors that can affect older
people’s physical activity include
pedestrian infrastructure, safety, access
to amenities and services, aesthetics
and
environmental
conditions.
17
Consultation
with
people
with
disabilities has also highlighted the
importance of adequate road crossings,
pavements, toilets and public seating
as well as organisational and attitudinal
factors to encourage walking.
18
It is important to engage people
with dementia and their carers in the
planning, development and evaluation
of the urban realm. For example,
having frequent pedestrian crossings
with increased crossing times and
audible and visual cues are necessary
to help people with dementia
safely cross the street.
19
Small-scale
improvements such as good street
lighting or improved road crossings
can also encourage movement.
20
Research suggests a need for
constantly maintaining, improving and
adapting the pedestrian environment
to meet the needs of older people
who are likely to be more vulnerable
as pedestrians but need the ability to
venture outside both for their physical
and mental health and wellbeing.
The importance of green spaces
The presence of, and access to, green
areas influences physical activity
through the whole of the life-course.
21
Access to the natural environment
can help increase activity and reduce
obesity, with research suggesting that
people with good perceived and/or
actual access to green space are 24%
more likely to be active.
22
The 2005
Bristol Quality of Life in your
Neighbourhood
survey showed that
reported use of green space declined
with increasing distance from it. People
living closest to the type of green
space classified as a ‘formal park’ were
more likely to achieve recommended
levels of physical activity and were less
likely to be overweight or obese.
23 24
Rural communities
People living in rural areas and villages
may find it as hard to be physically
active as people in towns and cities.
Difficulties in safely accessing many
services by walking, cycling, or by
public transport, can pose a real
challenge in some rural areas.
A lack of pavements or cycle ways on
busy rural roads can discourage use of
these travel modes even when moving
between towns and settlements
not too far apart. A challenge for
planners is to consider how access can
be improved, and how the needs of
walkers and cyclists can be taken into
account in the design and planning
of the rural road network. The
Department of Transport commends
adopting a “Safe Systems approach”
to build a safer road system,
25
which
one local authority has defined as the
“need to design a safe environment in
which people can move around”.
26
One specific example which promotes
physical activity is allowing cycles on
buses, so people can get from one
town or village to another and then
use their bikes to get around at their
destination point.
Travel plans
Travel plans
27
are already required
for significant new developments
such as housing, schools, businesses
and healthcare facilities as part of
the planning system to demonstrate
the impact of such developments on
traffic and movement of people.
Public health and transport planners
can work together to ensure that
such schemes demonstrate how they
support shifts fromprivate cars to forms
of active travel, and promote the design
of safe and attractive neighbourhoods
in which people can move around.
Signs of change
There are some signs of change. The
total number of miles driven by car
has increased, although the average
number of car journeys per person in
the UK fell by 12% from 1995 to 2013
(with major decreases among young
people, men above the age of 30 and
London residents). In contrast, the
number of female drivers is increasing.
There has been a significant increase
in passenger miles using rail transport
and the number of cycle journeys
has increased in flat, dense urban
areas such as London, Cambridge,
Oxford and Brighton. Factors behind
cycling’s popularity within London
include significant investment in
cycle infrastructure, the introduction
of the congestion charge and the
introduction of the cycle hire scheme
(which has seen annual journeys
increase to over ten million in five
years).
People of all ages increasingly want
to live in walkable, mixed use, public
transport-rich communities.
28
There
is also evidence that car travel is
becoming less popular
29
and that it has
become a minority mode of travel for
younger commuters.
30
The challenge now is to roll out good
practice across the country.
References
1.
Barton H, Horswell M & Millar, P
(2012)
Neighbourhood
accessibility
and active travel, Planning Practice &
Research
, 27(2), 117-201.
2.
Sinnett, D et al. (2012)
Creating built
environments that promote walking
and health: A review of international
evidence
. Journal of Planning and
Architecture 2012: 38.
3.
Ogilvie et al. (2007)
Interventions to
promote walking: systematic review
.
BMJ.9;334(7605):1204.
4.
Besser L & Dannenberg A
(2006)
Walking to public transit.
Steps to help meet physical activity
