Promoting walking and cycling as an alternative to using cars: systematic review

doi:10.1136/bmj.38216.714560.55

BMJ 2004;329:763 (2 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.38216.714560.55 (published 22 September 2004)

Paper

Promoting walking and cycling as an alternative to using cars: systematic review

David Ogilvie, MRC fellow¹, Matt Egan, social scientist¹, Val Hamilton, research coordinator², Mark Petticrew, associate director¹

¹ MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ, ² Centre for Digital Library Research, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XH

Correspondence to: D Ogilvie d.ogilvie{at}msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

Objectives To assess what interventions are effective in promotinga population shift from using cars towards walking and cyclingand to assess the health effects of such interventions.

Data sources Published and unpublished reports in any languageidentified from electronic databases, bibliographies, websites,and reference lists.

Review methods Systematic search and appraisal to identify experimentalor observational studies with a prospective or controlled retrospectivedesign that evaluated any intervention applied to an urban populationor area by measuring outcomes in members of the local population.

Results 22 studies met the inclusion criteria. We found someevidence that targeted behaviour change programmes can changethe behaviour of motivated subgroups, resulting (in the largeststudy) in a shift of around 5% of all trips at a populationlevel. Single studies of commuter subsidies and a new railwaystation also showed positive effects. The balance of best availableevidence about publicity campaigns, engineering measures, andother interventions suggests that they have not been effective.Participants in trials of active commuting experienced shortterm improvements in certain measures of health and fitness,but we found no good evidence on effects on health of any effectiveintervention at population level.

Conclusions The best available evidence of effectiveness inpromoting a modal shift is for targeted behaviour change programmes,but the social distribution of their effects is unclear andsome other types of intervention have yet to be rigorously evaluated.

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