About the research
Walking or cycling instead of driving or taking the bus is one way to build more exercise into your everyday life. This is known as ‘active transport’ – walking or cycling for travel rather than just for fun or exercise. This research examined how much active transport adults in the UK are doing and what sort of people do most active transport, drawing on survey data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
Twenty-eight percent of the respondents reported any form active transport and of these, 19 percent spent enough time doing their active transport to meet the current UK recommendations for physical activity. The investigation found that those engaged in active transport were mostly younger people and those without access to a car or van. Most people who did any form of active transport did enough to be considered physically active. This suggests that promoting active transport may be a useful policy strategy to help improve both physical activity levels and public health.
Methodology
All people aged 25 and over who took part in the Time Use Survey were included. Participants were asked to recall their main activity in every 10-minute slot throughout a 24-hour period. These activities were assigned to one of 30 codes, including ‘travelling’ – with separate codes for mode of travel (for example car or van, walk or jog, pedal bike, bus or coach, rail or tube) and reason for travelling (for example to escort someone else on a journey that would not otherwise have been made, purely for enjoyment, to commute to and from paid work, for shopping, and for other reasons). Total time spent on active transport was calculated from the number of 10-minute slots where the main activity was travelling by walking/jogging or pedal bike, and the reason anything other than enjoyment.
Publications
Adams, J. (2010) ‘Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of “active transport” in the UK: Analysis of the UK time use survey 2005’ in Preventive Medicine 50(4), pp. 199-203. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2010.01.006
The study results were also presented at UK Transport Research Centre workshop in Newcastle in March 2011.