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]

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