Review

Driven to an early end

HEALTH ON THE MOVE: POLICIES FOR HEALTH PROMOTING TRANSPORT
Transport and Health Study Group/Public Health Alliance, 1991, £5.00

Transport enables access to places and people and so benefits health; but it also causes ill health through accidents, pollution, noise and stress amongst other things — hence the relationship between transport and public health.

This relationship is explored in the 1991 policy statement of the Transport and Health Study Group (THSG), one of their aims being to make sure that policy-makers in central and local government, industry, trade unions, the media and other areas are aware of their research into the health effects of transport. They aim also to bring about changes in society through a healthy transport policy.

The document analyses in detail the health effects of transport, and the various things which influence these, such as risks of travelling on foot or bicycle, compared with the advantages of exercise and non-polluting forms of transport. The point is made that, in general, a person travelling benefits as an individual in terms of health, while the damaging effects of travel are felt by everyone in society.

This brings in the topic of social inequalities — people who experience the least benefit and most disadvantages of current transport policies are already disadvantaged in other ways — women, children, elderly people, poor people and ethnic minorities. The privately-owned car gets a battering — increased use of private cars has made the situation worse for people who are already disadvantaged - not only by pollution, but by its direct effect on the decline of public transport.

The THSG question the role of the government in planning roads, footways and cycleways, and in legislation affecting transport. Current policies are seen to perpetuate inequalities, allow damage to the environment and encourage non-social forms of transport — all health hazards.

They lay out their strategies for a healthy transport system, which, as expected, centre on better provision and use of public transport, the reasoning being that better public transport could meet the needs of people which are now met by individual car ownership, with less of the risks to health.

The final section is a comprehensive list of recommendations for a healthy transport system, and what this could achieve in terms of human potential.

The THSG have made good use of government data, and their proposals are far reaching. But are they achievable in a post-Thatcherist society ? Many of these strategies for change are in fact based on socialist principles. It seems important to mention the free market economy as a fundamental cause of our transport system being as it is, in order to focus our ideas for change.