To most of us, it’s hardly revolutionary to claim that cycling or walking to work everyday is a sure way to greatly improve fitness and enhance health. But what about public transport? In an academic article for the British Medical Journal, a number of experts have drawn parallels between workers who regularly use alternative modes of transport to travel to work and their body mass index (BMI). Indeed, the study claims that this actually has a more marked effect on body weight than diets or exercise programmes.

In the experiment, males who used public transport, cycled or walked to work everyday were rewarded with a BMI one point lower than those who used the car in their daily commute. For males, one BMI point equates to approximately half a stone. For the female participants, the trend was the same but less pronounced, at a difference of 5.5 pounds on average between daily drivers and daily public transport users. Although it is difficult to see how exactly the benefits from taking public transport can prove roughly the same as cycling or walking, the scientists involved are convinced of the experiment’s rigour. In concluding, the study suggests that the government should put equal emphasis on incentivising use of public transport as on espousing the benefits of walking and cycling to work.

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August 29th 2014 | Back to Industry Insights