fitness

Public Transit and Fitness

Diane Harper

I have been without a car for much of the past few weeks. I was not comfortable cycling for various reasons, so I pulled out my transit pass and started using the bus. My step count went way up.

This isn’t entirely surprising. I have to walk further than my driveway to get to the bus stop, and connecting buses and final destinations do not always align perfectly with bus stops.

It was rather fun to take the bus; definitely more social, and less pressure on me to navigate to where I was going. And because I’m cheap, I often walked to places that were relatively close because I didn’t want to pay $4.00.

Better health outcomes from using public transit isn’t news. OCTranspo has listed a bunch of studies here. This meta-analysis considered 27 studies, of which 9 reported on absolute measures of physical activity associated with public transport and further 18 papers reported on factors associated with physical activity as part of public transport use. A range of 8–33 additional minutes of walking was identified from this systematic search as being attributable to public transport use.

Of course, good integration of transit modes is what will encourage people to get out of their cars and use public and active transit, so this image from a study by UITP on exactly that issue seems perfect.

Pedestrians use a crosswalk while cyclists on a separated bike path wait for them to cross. There is a tram and another vehicle that may be a bus, and two large bike parking areas full of bikes. In the far background, you can see one car and possibly a truck.

Published by Diane Harper

Diane Harper is a retired former public servant who lives and swims (and bikes) in Ottawa. In her hobby life, she is Siglinde Harfnerstochter, a 6th C Merovingian housewife from the city of Metz. Her primary interests are cooking, textile arts and bonecarving. Siglinde lives in the canton of Caldrithig, Barony of Skraeling Althing, Kingdom of Ealdormere.

One thought on “Public Transit and Fitness”

  1. Thanks for this. I’ve been thinking about this too. While I’m staying in Toronto weekdays during research leave, I’ve mostly been taking taking the subway to campus. But that’s a fair bit of walking to the subway and home again. Today Sarah drove me to the station so coming home I got off two stops early and walked. I like the flexibility. Last week I walked home, all the way, with Nicole. It was possible because I knew I could bail at any time and hop on a streetcar. I’m a big fan of public transit.

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