Prescribing Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet

The document argues that promoting active travel—defined as walking, cycling, and public transit—creates a 'quadruple win' by reducing chronic disease, improving air quality, slowing climate change, and increasing health equity. It provides a framework for health professionals to encourage patients to integrate physical activity into their daily routines and to advocate for urban planning policies, such as the '5 Ds' of community design (density, land use diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit). A significant portion of the guide focuses on the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in Ontario, explaining how intensification and complete community planning can facilitate a shift away from automobile dependence.

• Active travel is described as a 'quadruple win' for public health because it can 'reduce rates of chronic disease, improve air quality, slow climate change, and increase health equity'.
• Physical inactivity and obesity impose significant economic burdens in Canada; cardiovascular disease alone cost $12.1 billion in 2008, and obesity-related chronic diseases cost an estimated $7.1 billion annually.
• Active transportation is an effective strategy for reducing chronic disease because it replaces automobile trips with walking or cycling; for example, walking or cycling to work is linked to an 11 per cent reduction in cardiovascular risk.
• Public transit use increases physical activity as most trips begin or end with walking; a Montreal study found a round trip averaged 2,500 steps, representing 25 per cent of recommended daily activity.
• Traffic-related air pollution has severe health impacts in Ontario; in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), it is estimated to cause approximately 700 premature deaths annually, with an economic impact exceeding $4.6 billion per year.
• The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gases in Canada, accounting for 26 per cent of total national emissions in 2004, and 35 per cent of emissions in Ontario.
• Community design significantly influences travel behavior through the '5 Ds': density, land use diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit. The built environment is estimated to account for 48 per cent to 90 per cent of differences in walking levels.
• The Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe aims to curb urban sprawl by promoting 'complete communities' and higher densities; for instance, the 2016 Proposed Growth Plan suggests a minimum intensification target of 60 per cent for new residential development in existing urban areas.
• Active transportation can alleviate poverty and social inequality by reducing the necessity of car ownership, which costs an average of $10,456 per year in Canada.
• Gender disparities exist in cycling; in the GTHA, less than 30 per cent of cyclists are female, often due to perceived traffic danger, whereas in countries with higher modal shares like Denmark and the Netherlands, the gap is minimal or reversed.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (2017). Prescribing Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2.Report_-_Prescribing_Active_Travel_for_Healthy_People_and_a_Healthy_Planet_-_A_Toolkit_for_Health_Professionals-new.pdf

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Prescribing Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet. 2017. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2.Report_-_Prescribing_Active_Travel_for_Healthy_People_and_a_Healthy_Planet_-_A_Toolkit_for_Health_Professionals-new.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Prescribing Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet |date=March 2017 |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2.Report_-_Prescribing_Active_Travel_for_Healthy_People_and_a_Healthy_Planet_-_A_Toolkit_for_Health_Professionals-new.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironment2017prescribing, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Prescribing Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet}}, institution = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2017}, month = mar, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2.Report_-_Prescribing_Active_Travel_for_Healthy_People_and_a_Healthy_Planet_-_A_Toolkit_for_Health_Professionals-new.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }