A comparison of the health and environmental impacts of increasing urban density against increasing propensity to walk and cycle in Nashville, USA

Abstract

The transportation sector accounts for approximately 23% of the total energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide and 33% in the USA. At the same time, physical inactivity contributes to adverse health through non-communicable diseases. If policies can increase active transport (walking and cycling) and reduce car use, they could benefit human health and environmental health but the relative impact of different approaches has been under researched. This study estimated change in all-cause mortality and CO2 emissions in greater Nashville, Tennessee (USA) for two scenarios: (a) the propensity to walk and cycle a trip of a given distance increases directly to the same levels as seen in England, and (b) walking and cycling trips increase and travel distance decrease indirectly as a result of a more compact urban form. If the propensity to walk and cycle in Nashville were equal with England, about 339 deaths and about 36 ktCO2e (1%) of transportation-related CO2 emissions could be avoided per year. The compact urban form scenario could avoid 170 deaths and 370 ktCO2e (10%) of transportation-related CO2 emissions. In Nashville, both increasing the propensity to use active transport and more compact urban form would have notable public health gains, but a more compact form would have a much bigger effect on emissions.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Ahmad, Sohail https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2816-8484 Goodman, Anna Creutzig, Felix Woodcock, James Tainio, Marko
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	Funding Information: SA acknowledges the support from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Germany) for the research fellowship. SA was also supported by Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods, which is funded via UK Research and Innovation, and administered through the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund. MT and JW: The work was undertaken by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust (MR/K023187/1), under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. MT and JW were also supported by METAHIT, an MRC Methodology Panel project (MR/P02663X/1). The views presented in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the study funders or those providing feedback. Funders had no role in designing, conducting and reporting the study. Authors acknowledge feedbacks received at the Cities and Climate Conference, 2017, Potsdam (Germany). Thanks to Leslie Meehan, Rochelle Carpenter, and Geoffrey Whitfield for data and feedback and Brian McCabe for writing advise on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks to Mike Thompson Nashville Civic Design Center for Nashville’s images (Figure 5). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:	Active transport,CO emissions,comparative risk assessment,physical activity,policy learning,USA
Dates:	Published: 2 January 2020 Published (online): 24 September 2019 Accepted: 15 August 2019
Institution:	The University of York
Academic Units:	The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Computer Science (York)
Depositing User:	Pure (York)
Date Deposited:	31 Jan 2023 10:40
Last Modified:	16 Oct 2024 19:00
Published Version:	https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2019.1659667
Status:	Published
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1080/23748834.2019.1659667
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:195884

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A comparison of the health and environmental impacts of increasing urban density against increasing propensity to walk and cycle in Nashville, USA

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