Forum Topic

Health in Cities

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Whitty, published the annual report on health in cities yesterday. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6756e67b43b2de5fee8dae87/cmo-annual-report-2024-health-in-cities.pdfThere is, of course, a section dedicated to Active Travel starting on page 333. It's really very good and many of the points will be familiar to my personal fan club on this forum. It sets out the case for Active Travel's role in creating healthier urban populations - integrating exercise into our daily movements has numerous health benefits. Then it outlines the barriers and how they need to be overcome. It is a short section and I encourage you all to read it. Here are a few excerpts:On car reduction:  "Reducing private vehicle journeys and car dependency†45 by increasing active travel reduces air and noise pollution and levels of carbon emissions in cities. It also reduces traffic congestion, thereby increasing mobility, accessibility and speed of journeys, increasing productivity and economic benefits, and health equity for households without access to a vehicle.""Over-reliance of private cars is an inefficient use of city space. Supporting people to use active or sustainable travel frees up space for more health and wealth generating activities, e.g. space for play, community amenities, socialising and green spaces, all of which improve the quality of life in our cities."On deterrents to active travel:"Fear of cars and poor driving practices such as speeding are a major deterrent to active travel. Whilst the hierarchy of road users in the Highway Code (Figure 4.61) seeks to protect pedestrian and cyclists as the more vulnerable road users, this is not consistently applied in the design of infrastructure, or enforced. Some examples are when cars park in cycle lanes or when motorists assume they have right of way"

Paul Campbell ● 12d27 Comments

We all want good health..

Michael Brown ● 3d

Apologies to Anna, it was UK politics, not that he may have been accused but that he admitted certain failings, I'm not posting them as Boris and he I thought did their best.

Janice Evans ● 11d

I have only found one from Anna, anyhow if people promote healthy livingthat is great, but be prepared for elderly population.

Janice Evans ● 11d

Actually I may have read that in a post by Anna.

Janice Evans ● 11d

Wasn't P Whitty accused along with Boris of failing the elderly.

Janice Evans ● 11d

Who is moaning about an ageing population? That’s just a fact and one policy-makers need to deal with. I’d suggest that encouraging public health is better than making people sicker with car dependency in the hope they die younger!

Paul Campbell ● 11d

why do these people moan about the ageing population, then suggest everyone stay healthy and live longer. 😳

Janice Evans ● 11d

Active Travel is a high impact health intervention for urban populations at relatively low cost. The CMO is paving the way for the DfT to announce diversion of chunks of road budgets to Active Travel England in the spring review. For example spending £300m on a cycle network in West London would have a hugely positive impact on the health of the population as opposed to opening a single bridge to cars which would only have a negative impact.

Paul Campbell ● 11d

I wish you well with your obsession. My contention is there are far lower hanging fruit to deal with and make a real difference in the short term.

N V Brooks ● 12d

It’s much simpler than that on this thread of the debate Nigel. Car obsession makes people turn into people like you and Steve Taylor and Simon Hayes and the founders of OneChiswick. That is as powerful  an argument for the benefits of reallocating road space away from cars as any that Professor Whitty has put forward. Everybody wants to avoid that fate.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

I'm far happier ignoring fixated veloviles and focusing in improving life chances, albeit in a terribly small way through food banks and campaigning for adequate housing. You stick to pushbikes if you believe that they will feed a child or give them somewhere safe to sleep. Each to their own

N V Brooks ● 12d

No I’m quite serious about this line of the debate. All of the people I have encountered who actively oppose efforts to reduce car dependency in cities are excellent examples of why we should double down our efforts. You, Steve Taylor and Simon Hayes are prime exhibits on this forum. Whatever we do we must avoid more people turning out like you three.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Yes, the normal response from a velovile lacking the bandwidth to carry on a reasoned debate. Take yor ball and run away home.

N V Brooks ● 12d

Yes Paul, but do you have an Elk?

Chris Blackwell ● 12d

Chris, there is an excellent tool called Google for people asking themselves basic questions like “ what is polling” and “why haven’t I been asked”. Using Google can save people the embarrassment of public displays of childish ignorance.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

It never ceases to amaze me that these surveys are taken as absolute but nobody actually asked me or indeed anybody I know. I mean who fills in these surveys? It's a bit like "Best guitarist in the World" lists, who decides those? (And I won't have it that Slash somehow ranks higher than Jeff Beck).I'm assuming these lists are completed by people with vested interests in their outcome, people who will actively hunt the lists down to fill them in with indelible ink. If this is the case (and I strongly suspect it is) then these surveys must be incredibly skewed toward the desired outcome of the respondant, ie: Paul Campbell and his ilk. I nearly wrote "Paul Campbell and his elk" but I have no idea if he owns an elk or is in any way interested in Cervus Canadensis in general.

Chris Blackwell ● 12d

I’m not responding to you Nigel. You’re irrelevant apart from being a good example of the negative health impacts of a lifetime of car dependency. I’m sharing more excerpts from Professor Whitty’s report on the benefits of active travel to urban populations. So more people can enjoy not ending up like you.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Wow, four slides in 'response' none of which addresses child malnutrition or crap quality housing. Still, it's what one should expect I suppose from someone hyperfixated  with his own vision for traffic.

N V Brooks ● 12d

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Shame you have to live in a flat then like the old ladies.  Should have worked harder. I’m in favour of what Professor Whitty is suggesting - reallocating road space away from private cars and very happy to take your offer of doing it on the basis of modal share so that bikes get 5% of all the road pace in London. It was you who decided to allocate that in a way that would remove private car parking on one side of every road in London. It’s certainly one way of reducing car dependency and it’s your way. No such thing as a bad idea when it comes to reducing cars in London.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Glad that you agree and if I ever meet a steak eater living in a flat in Ealing I may ask them. I only know three flat dwellers and they are all older ladies. Very few flats in my locale, largely five bed+ semis and a lot for four bed terraces. However, back in the real world far more benefit would be delivered by solving the housing and the oh so bloody obvious that even a velovile would notice, child nutrition problems. Might be worth getting off your saddle and actually campigning for something that will make a real difference rathe than relying on the imposition of your 'masterplan' with the associated infrastructure cost of barly used cycle lanes. As you were in favour of 15-18" wide cycly paths I do hopt that you havfe been working tirelessly for the removal of CS9 and its overprovision. :-)

N V Brooks ● 12d

You're so right. Healthy urban populations is such a frippery with no economic benefit whatsoever. Thank goodness for the common sense of the steak bap eating decrepit working class blokes living in flats in Ealing to tell that Whitty what's what.

Paul Campbell ● 12d

Given that the economy is tanking under this government of "unprecedented growth" :-) the liklihood of having the budget  to persue such fripperies is remote. Technically, we are one more bad month from a technical recession.

N V Brooks ● 12d

And here are the report's six recommendations for urban policy makers:1. There is strong and consistent evidence of the benefits of active travel in cities across many policy areas. Health and wellbeing should be given greater weight in appraisal assessments of capital and revenue projects relating to urban transport.2. Enabling active travel will reduce health inequalities in our cities. Collection of better disaggregated data on who is travelling where and for what purpose is required to ensure that we are supporting everyone to be able to travel actively.3. We need to give equal weight to all the travel and transport needs of all our city dwellers. Changing the environment changes behaviour, so city planners need to reallocate road space away from cars and towards other more efficient and less polluting forms of transport. The negative impact of car dependency on physical and mental health, air pollution, road traffic danger, inequalities, carbon emissions and productivity must be clearly communicated to the public, with open discussions on what alternative systems could look like and the benefits these will bring.4. The revision of the Highway Code is greatly welcomed, but extensive promotion of the changes is required, along with the reasoning behind the hierarchy of vulnerability. The risks that each group poses to each other needs to be clearly described, with the most attention being given to reducing the risks from those that pose the greatest dangers: that is, to changing the behaviour of car, van, and lorry drivers.5. A more joined up approach is required, including both universal infrastructural changes and social/behavioural/policy interventions. These must cover larger areas with long term funding if they are to maximise their impact. All initiatives need to be sustained and placed-based designed and delivered through and with people and partners who are present in and rooted in that community.6. Active travel must be everyone’s business, and this requires:■ support and training for health and care workforce to ensure they can effectively help both patients and colleagues to design active journeys into their everyday lives■ a proactive approach by businesses and the integration of walking, wheeling and cycling as part of wider public transport networks■ shared messaging, campaigns and integrated planning to support population level modal shift away from urban journeys by private car, towards more journeys via active and sustainable transport.

Paul Campbell ● 12d