Opinion: Taking active travel seriously

Sam Chapman co-chair of Sheffield Chamber’s South Yorkshire Transport Forum

Here in Sheffield, the city is taking a giant leap to transform its transport infrastructure and to help people get around the city on foot, by cycle and by public transport.

The ambition is for walking and cycling to become a realistic and safe choice for anyone looking to get from place to place on shorter journeys.

For too long, the culture has been car centric – around 20% of current car commuting trips are less than 1km and it’s a fact that those on lower incomes are more likely to live in congested areas which discourage walking and cycling.

The importance of health and wellbeing can’t be understated. Physical inactivity burdens society through the hidden and growing cost of medical care and loss of productivity and getting the public to be physically active is a public health priority.

Peter Kennan, co-chair of Sheffield Chamber’s South Yorkshire Transport Forum

This is important to us here at the Chamber, as everything we do has the aim to improve business in Sheffield and as part of this, we must consider health and wellbeing in everything we do.

Moving to more Active Travel reduces inequality, improves access to opportunity and allows for better physical health. Walking to and from public transport stops can help physically inactive populations attain the recommended level of daily physical activity.Walking is the most basic form of physical activity humans can undertake to maintain good health. For individuals, the failure to spend 15–30 minutes a day in brisk walking (or similar activities) increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes by 20–30%, and shortens lifespan by 3–5 years.To generate maximum benefit to population health, we must consider physically inactive people and encourage some additional active travel amongst this group. Cycling and walking are the transport modes that have the most potential public health and environmental benefits.

If that wasn’t reason enough to reconsider how we move around, getting active will make our city greener, improve air quality, lower carbon emissions, lower noise pollution and reduce congestion.

It’s important we openly discuss the challenges and opportunities, listen to each other, and respect each other’s opinion on what can often be a contentious subject. As we start to make changes, it’s important we look at the reasons people don’t walk, cycle, run or take public transport in the volumes seen in other cities. There is a lot to learn from neighbouring and European cities as we move forwards.

It is fully understood by everyone that until we get a well-funded, more frequent and reliable bus service, it will be a challenge to get people out of their cars – and it is absolutely right that many journeys have to be made by car. Not all do though. Look at your journeys – what could you do differently?

The recent appointment of Olympic Champion Ed Clancy as South Yorkshire’s Active Travel Commissioner will give a focus to have these important conversations.