Study: Good Bike and Ped Infrastructure Actually Makes Neighbors Healthier

Vancouver's Comox-Helmcken Greenway Photo:  Paul Krueger/Flickr/CC
Vancouver's Comox-Helmcken Greenway Photo: Paul Krueger/Flickr/CC

Living near safe, high-quality biking and walking facilities actually improves people’s health, according to a new study that found a direct link between urban active transportation infrastructure and increased exercise.

The study, published in the journal of Preventative Medicine, examined a random group in Vancouver, British Columbia, before and after the construction of the Comox-Helmcken Greenway, a 1.2-mile protected biking and walking facility.

The study found that people who lived with .2 miles — a few blocks — of the new greenway were twice as likely to get the recommended 20 minutes of physical activity daily. The effect declined as the distance from the greenway increased.

“The message is pretty clear,” said Andy Hong, a health scientist at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study. “Well-designed and well-thought-out greenways, like the Comox-Helmcken Greenway, can promote health by encouraging people to be more active and spend less time sitting.”

He noted that the Comox-Helmcken Greenway includes many features of high-quality on-street biking and walking infrastructure, including green paint, landscaping and traffic calming measures.

Map: Vancouver
Map: Vancouver

The project was completed in 2013 for about $5 million, according to the Vancouver Sun. It is part of a larger greenway system for the city.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

More Evidence That Adding Bike Infrastructure Boosts Biking

|
If you build it, they will bike. That’s the upshot of a new study from researchers at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, examining the effect of bike infrastructure. Researchers charted bike commuting rates across the Minneapolis area, finding, not surprisingly, that the biggest increases happened near the biggest investments in safe, comfortable bike infrastructure. The research […]

A Bike-Ped State of the Union: 9.6% of Trips, 1.2% of Federal Funding

|
With the nation still digesting the State of the Union address, the Alliance for Biking & Walking picked an auspicious day to release their biennial Benchmarking report on America’s bike-ped behavior. The group’s bottom-line conclusion: federal transportation funding continues to disproportionately shortchange travelers powered by their own two feet. (Chart: Alliance for Biking & Walking) […]

The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston?

|
Houston’s Bayou Greenways plan is perhaps the largest active transportation project in the country right now — if residents can actually use it for transportation when it’s completed. Jen Powis of the Houston Parks Board has described the greenway project as a cross between the Atlanta Beltline and the Portland Bike Master Plan, which “re-envisions transportation” […]
Funding for the White Oak Creek Greenway Phase IV in Cary, North Carolina, was part of $100 million invested in the East Coast Greenway in 2020. (Photo by Dave Connelly, via East Coast Greenway Alliance

It's Time for More Federal Dollars for Greenways

|
It’s up to us in the next few days and weeks to ensure that more than a tiny portion of the next infrastructure package goes to greenways, sidewalks, and bike lanes. If we don’t stand up to give people safe networks to live a low-carbon, high-quality life, then we can be assured that the highway lobby will be ready to spend our tax dollars.