Healthy you, healthy planet

Travelling on foot or by bicycle can improve our health and make our air cleaner.

If there was a pill which lowered your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and dementia would you take it?

Unfortunately, no such treatment exists in pill form. But there is something, if done regularly, which has been found to have all these benefits – exercise.

Exercising, if you’re able to do it, isn’t quite as easy as easy as swallowing a pill.

Unless you have a physically active job, it requires some motivation and dedicated time.

However, aside from muscle aches, the risk of side effects is low, and if you own a pair of trainers, you can head out for a jog or a walk completely for free.

As well as providing physical health benefits, regular exercise is also associated with improved mental health and can provide a great opportunity to socialise, for example through playing sport.

UK government physical activity guidelines recommend that adults should be doing at least 2.5 hours of moderately intense activity, such as brisk walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of vigorously intense activity, such as running, per week.

Children aged over 5 should be exercising even more – at least 60 minutes per day on average each week.

However, a survey carried out in Northern Ireland in 2019/20 found that 25 per cent of adults hadn’t engaged in any sporting activity or recreational walking over the preceding year.

Although some survey respondents may have been inactive due to disabilities, the statistic suggests we are falling short of activity recommendations.

This series of articles aims to explore the health benefits of eco-friendly lifestyle changes.

So, let’s focus on a form of physical activity which reduces our carbon and air pollution emissions, whilst simultaneously improving our health and wellbeing – getting from A to B by our own steam power, also known as active travel.

 

Can we become more like Copenhagen?

Active travel is already a really well-developed phenomenon in some European cities, such as Copenhagen in Denmark, which has been described as the most bike-friendly city in the world.

Through investment in cycling infrastructure, this city has made huge progress in promoting cycling for transportation – in 2019, 44 per cent of all trips to school or work were purportedly done by bike.

So why are we still so dependent on cars to get around in this part of the world? Is it because of the weather?

Denmark is on average slightly drier and sunnier than Ireland, though both countries have more than 100 rain days per year.

Clearly, rain is something many active commuters in Copenhagen can cope with!

Compared to commutable cities, the rurality of our communities presents another challenge.

However, many of us live in or on the edge of towns and villages, and though we’ll need to drive or take a bus for some journeys, other shorter journeys, such as to a local shop or to school, can be done on foot or by bicycle.

We have more hills than Denmark does, but electric bicycles, for those of us who can afford them, can make these more manageable.

Infrastructure, or a lack of it, is another challenging area here but hopefully one where we’ll see improvements in future.

A Bicycle Strategy for Northern Ireland, published in 2015, outlines plans to increase levels of cycling over a 25-year period.

It’s hoped that investment in infrastructure will improve people’s health, reduce congestion and air pollution and boost local economies – some of the benefits already enjoyed by cities like Copenhagen.

 

Greenways

The Bicycle Strategy for Northern Ireland also includes plans for a network of greenways across the province.

Greenways are typically developed on disused transport infrastructure such as old railway lines.

They provide flat, quiet routes which are appealing for young and less confident cyclists.

I love the idea of a connected network of greenways – providing accessible spaces for people of all ages to exercise and commute in traffic-free, natural surroundings, and attracting more tourists to enjoy our beautiful countryside.

Let’s hope this becomes a reality.

 

Judith Pinnick is a GP who is interested in the links between health and the environment. She works at Irvinestown Health Centre.