A study by the University of Illinois has found that communities with higher rates of mass transit have lower obesity rates.
Sheldon Jacobson, a computer science professor from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, along with Douglas King, an industrial and enterprising systems engineering lecturer, and graduate student Zhaowei She examined publicly available county health and transportation data.
To ensure the accuracy of the data, several factors were controlled, including access to health care, poverty rates and education levels.
For each one percent rise in a county’s population who frequently use public transit, obesity rates decline 0.2 percent.
Results were published in the journal Preventive Medicine.
“The choice to ride public transit instead of driving can create an opportunity for physical activity,” Jacobson said. “For example, when someone rides a bus, they may begin their trip by walking from their home to a bus stop before boarding the bus. Then, once they get off of the bus, they may still need to walk from a bus stop to their destination. Alternatively, if they had driven a car, they might simply drive directly from their home to their destination and eliminate the walking portion of the trip.”
A previous study by King and Jacobson found that a reduction in daily driving was associated with a reduced body mass index.