Katharina Buczek
It has long been known that opting to walk or ride your bike is a much healthier option than hopping in your car and sitting in traffic.
Not only does your choice to ditch the engine mitigate environmental pollution, but you can also cut down on cardiovascular health risks throughout your day-to-day.
Obviously, though, these modes of transportation are just not feasible in every single community for a plethora of reasons.
But just recently, a new global study conducted by scientists at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada has uncovered some of the top neighborhood characteristics that encourage residents to walk or cycle.
“Cycling and walking are two excellent ways to weave exercise into daily life and meet those fitness goals outlined in many New Year’s resolutions. We sought to understand how factors in the built environment can either promote or discourage a person from engaging in these forms of physical activity,” SFU Professor Scott Lear said.
The study included nearly 40,000 adults between the ages of 35 and 70 who lived in over 350 urban communities.
These communities hailed from a range of World Bank-classified low, middle, and high-income countries.
Canada, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were the four high-income countries studied; meanwhile, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania were the four low-income countries. Additionally, five lower-middle-income countries were studied, including Colombia, China, Palestine, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan.
Finally, eight upper middle-income countries were also included in the study– Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, and South Africa.
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