Impact of urban planning on physical health
The way our settlements are designed has serious implications for our physical health. Our current model involving heavy car traffic in cities has caused many problems. But what are their consequences? And what's the alternative?
Motorised vehicle transport is an important driver of urban air pollution, which is linked to many diseases and health problems such as lung cancer, asthma, exacerbation of allergies, and other respiratory illnesses (1). These issues most severely affect the most vulnerable: people with respiratory and cardiovascular problems, unborn and young children, and the elderly (2). As many as 30000 people are estimated to die due to air pollution in the US alone (3).
An often ignored issue related to transport in cities is noise pollution, which vehicles are the main source of. Interestingly, the majority of sound emitted by vehicles is due to tire rolling resistance, not propulsion, so even electric vehicles suffer from this problem. Environmental noise is linked to hearing loss, disturbance of sleep, stress, or high blood pressure (4).
Looking at the data on the most common death causes, it becomes apparent that the most common ones can be linked to problems exacerbated by cars (5).
So what is the alternative? Replacing as much car traffic as possible with walking and cycling removes or significantly reduces the aforementioned problems while providing numerous health benefits. Active mobility is associated with lower rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other illnesses (6). The reason why many people choose cars over public transportation biking or walking is not necessarily due to cars' inherent benefits, but because of the ones, they offer in the current system. By making active mobility more convenient, faster, safer, and more comfortable you can expect significant increases in its share of transport sources.
As we can see compact suburbs and cities, (where commutes are short) that promote active mobility and discourage car ownership, as opposed to sprawling urban form, are heavily beneficial to overall physical well-being (7).
(1) https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/62973/6/01_B7AMSGH_Manuscript_v5_ei.pdf
(2) https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/air/Pages/who-is-affected.aspx
(3) https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/192130/air-pollution-us-associated-with-30000/
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5898791/
(4) https://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/e94888.pdf?ua=1
(5) https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death
(6) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2021.721218/full#h3
(7) https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-5-25
I've been living in the very centre of Warsaw for the last few weeks and discovered that what matters a lot for a pedestrian is the quality of paving. Uneven pavements and streets (granite paving stones or paving bricks, cobbled streets) and very hard surfaces are a nightmare to the feet, especially if you have to walk longer distances.
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