
Health and Safety
Peel Health and Safety Facts
- Communities relying on cars for transportation have more obesity
- Communities that walk, cycle and use public transportation have less obesity
- In Peel Region, walking and cycling are about 7% of transportation trips while communities in Western Europe are closer to 40%
- Peel Region has an obesity rate approaching 50%
- Each day Peel Region residents use cars 987,000 times to travel 7 kilometres or less. That’s like travelling to the moon and back five times every day!
- Every hour of moderate cycling burns 300 calories and adds more than an hour to expected healthy lifetime, that is, lifetime without a major disability
- People often say they don’t cycle more for transportation because they perceive cycling on the roads as dangerous.
- Yet the health benefits of cycling exceed traffic risk by a 5 to 1 ratio or more
- More cycling leads to safer roads with fewer accidents and lower rates of serious injury
Sources
- [“Evidence on Why Bike-Friendly Cities Are Safer for All Road Users”, Wesley E. Marshall, Norman W. Garrick, Environmental Practice 13 (1) March 2011]
- [“Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling”, P.L.Jacobsen, Journal of Injury Prevention, 2003;9:3 205-209]
- [Professor John Pucher, “City Cycling”, MIT Press]
- [2008 Ontario Health Study]
- [2009-2012 Peel Long-range Transportation Study]