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Active transport to work in Australia: is it all downhill from here?

journal contribution
posted on 2006-03-01, 00:00 authored by Colin BellColin Bell, Jan Garrard, Boyd Swinburn
Physical inactivity is increasing in Australia and active forms of transportation may be one way to increase the working population’s daily physical activity. We used travel-to-work data from employed persons aged 15 years and over participating in the 1996 (n=7,636,319) and 2001(n=8,298,606) Australian censuses to determine prevalence and trends in walking and cycling to work by state and gender, and differences in prevalence by age. In 2001, 3.8% of Australians walked to work and <1% cycled. Over 64% travelled to work by car. There have been small declines in walking (men and women) and cycling (men) over the 5-years from 1996 to 2001. People were more likely to walk or cycle to work if they lived in the Northern Territory, if they were male or if they were aged 15 to 24 years. They were more likely to travel by car if they lived in the Australian Capital Territory, if they were male, or if they were aged 45-54 years. Few people walk or cycle to work in Australia. Efforts to encourage active transportation are urgently needed.

History

Journal

Asia-Pacific journal of public health

Volume

18

Issue

1

Pagination

62 - 68

Publisher

Science Press

Location

Hong Kong

ISSN

1010-5395

eISSN

1941-2479

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, Sage Publishers