Potential Health Implications and Health Cost Reductions of Transit-Induced Physical Activity

Transit has the potential to increase an individual's level of physical activity due to the need to walk or bike at the beginning and end of each trip. Consideration of these health benefits would allow transit proponents to better demonstrate its true costs and benefits. In light of transit's potential health-related impacts, this study contributes to the growing discussion in the emerging field of health and transportation by providing a review of the current level of understanding and evidence related to the physical activity implications of transit use and its associated health cost benefits. Findings from the review revealed that transit use is associated with increased levels of physical activity and improved health outcomes, but the magnitude of these effects is uncertain. There were few studies that estimated the health care cost savings of transit systems, and those that did tended to be imprecise and simplistic. Objective physical activity measures and frequency-based transit measures would allow for greater consistency across studies and help more directly attribute physical activity gains to transit ridership. Additionally, research in this area would benefit from disaggregate estimation techniques and more robust health datasets that can be better linked with existing transit data.