health

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Public Health and Transport Masterclass – presentation and resources

Public Health Outcomes Framework transport related indicators – referred to in the above presentation, this is the full list of all the Public Health Outcome measures that local authorities will be assessed against highlighting those indicators related to transport.

Evidence

Healthy transport = healthy lives British Medical Association (2012) – Summary of the links between health and transport

Health on the Move 2: Policies for health-promoting transport Mindell JS, Watkins SJ, Gohen JM (eds) (2011) – Comprehensive overview of evidence for the range of health issues relating to transport

Transport, physical activity and health: present knowledge and the way ahead Mackett, RL & Brown B (2011)- Review of the evidence on physical activity and transport which finds the key means of increasing physical activity is through reducing car use while retaining accessibility

Fairness in a car dependent society Sustainable Development Commission (2011) – Evidence and policy recommendations for inequalities and transport

Essential evidence: the benefits of cycling and walking – one page evidence summaries of various topics by Adrian Davis, Bristol City Council

NICE Guidance

‘Gold standard’ evidence based guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Evidence (NICE) relating to active travel. These are summarised in NICE’s pathway for local authorities.

Public Health Guidance 8 Promoting and creating built or natural environments that encourage and support physical activity (January 2008)

Public Health Guidance 13 Promoting Physical Activity in the workplace (May 2008)

Public Health Guidance 17 Physical activity and Children (January 2009)

Public Health Guidance 25 Prevention of CVD at a population level (June 2010)

Public Health Guidance 31 Preventing unintentional road injuries among under-15s: road design (November 2010)

Public Health Guidance 41 Walking and cycling: local measures to promote walking and cycling as forms of travel or recreation (November, 2012)

Tools

Health Economic Assessment Tool for walking and cycling World Health Organisation (2011) – Online tool to estimate the economic savings from increasing walking and/or cycling:

Public Health Outcomes Framework Data Tool London Health Observatory (2012) – Tool for comparing local authorities by their performance against each of the Public Health Outcome Framework Measures

Standard evaluation framework for physical activity interventions National Obesity Observatory (2012) -Tool for evaluating the effectiveness of walking and cycling projects

Health Urban Development Unit – Tools for assessing the health impacts of planning

Air Quality Guide for each London borough Greater London Authority.

National Heart Forum Healthy Places website – Resource explaining the operation of laws that could enable, or place limits on, local government and community activity that affects the healthiness of a place including case studies of how others have used the regulatory environment to promote physical activity

Policy

Take action on active travel: why a shift from car dominated transport policy would benefit public health Sustrans (2010) – A useful resource for policy recommendations and related policy documents on this subject

Health Impact Assessment of Transport Initiatives: A Guide Douglas M, Thomson H, Jepson R, Hurley F, Higgins M, Muirie J, Gorman D (eds) (2007) -Policy background, evidence and guidance on health impact assessment for transport and health

Transport data

Transport Statistics Great Britain: 2010 edition Department for Transport (2011) – Survey data of travel habits in Great Britain

London Travel Demand Survey Transport for London (2011) – Survey data of travel habits in London

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Masterclass on transport and health

Responsibility for Public Health is moving from the NHS to local authorities providing a new opportunity to make the case for transport interventions on the basis of improving health.  Come to our first masterclass to find out how to make the most of this opportunity from Lucy Saunders, a specialist in Public Health and transport.

Lucy Saunders is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, she has worked in the public health system in London for 10 years in Primary Care Trusts, Health Protection Agency, Department of Health, World Health Organisation, PwC and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She now works for the Greater London Authority integrating public health into transport and planning across London.

The masterclass will cover:

  • What Public Health is, who is responsible for it, what they do and how to engage with them
  • What is changing and why this is a good time to make the link between health and transport
  • Challenges, barriers and how to overcome them
  • All the key resources for making the health case for increasing walking and cycling in London

We hope you can join us for the masterclass which will be held at City Hall on Wednesday 21st November from 6.30 – 8pm. Please let us know if you’d like to attend.

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September’s Street Talk

We hope you can join us for Street Talks next Monday when we will be exploring the relationship between cheap oil, car dependency, road danger, the inactivity pandemic, climate change and obesity with Professor Ian Roberts, author of The Energy Glut: The Politics of Fatness in an Overheating World.

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on Monday 10th September.

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May’s Street Talk – Full details

Judith Green, Reader in Sociology of Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Identity and the city – what your choice of transport says about you

Some Londoners have a large choice of how they move around the city – others rather less. How much choice you have, and what you choose, depends in part on transport availability and accessibility, and your resources; but also on the cultural associations that become attached to different modes of transport. Social identities (gendered, aged, ethnic and other) as well as practical considerations influence whether we see ourselves as ‘the kind of person’ who cycles, or catches the bus, or drives.

Understanding perceptions of transport modes is essential if we want to change the ways people move around the city. Cyclists in London are disproportionately ‘affluent white men’: why is an accessible form of transport (in theory) so narrowly appealing in practice? Bus travel, in contrast, was once the mode of last resort for those with no other options. However, policies to provide bus travel for free for two key age groups (under 18s and older citizens) have arguably made bus travel a valued, rather than stigmatised way to travel, for these groups. Social identities are bound up in transport choices, but these are clearly not fixed – they can change as a result of both the deliberate outcomes and unintended consequences of policy.

We hope you can join us and Judith Green from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for May’s Street Talk to explore some of the changing cultural perceptions of transport modes in London, in particular cycling and bus travel. What makes a particular form of transport more or less appealing to particular kinds of people?

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 1st May.

Judith Green is a medical sociologist, with degrees in anthropology and medical sociology. She is part of the Transport and Health Group at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her current research includes studies of inequalities in road injury, transport policies, and the sociology of active transport modes. The On the Buses project is evaluating the impact of free bus travel for young people on public health. Judith edits Critical Public Health, an international peer-reviewed journal which publishes a broad range of critical research and commentary on and for public health, and recently co-edited a collection of articles from the journal, Critical Perspectives in Public Health.

Judith’s talk will draw on research by the Transport and Health group at LSHTM, including research funded by Transport for London, NHS Camden and NIHR Public Health Research Programme (project number 09/3001/13). The views and opinions expressed in the talk are those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health, other funders or colleagues.