The connection between transportation and health may not be obvious. But how people get around communities is interconnected with physical and mental wellbeing. Easy access to public transit is linked with direct health impacts, like increased levels of physical activity. Transportation also opens doors to other factors that contribute to health — as Sylvaine found with her health care appointments.
“It’s the linkage between you and all of these other things that impact your health,” says Amanda Grimes, an associate professor of health sciences at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. “Access to food itself is a social determinant of health. But how do you get access to food? It usually takes transportation.”
Advocates for zero-fare systems say that the increased mobility they offer supports health, but now, researchers in Kansas City are working to understand just how much. A project led by Grimes and colleagues at the University of Missouri–Kansas City is looking at the immediate and indirect health impacts. (Sylvaine works as an assistant on the research project.)
The researchers are finding a clear health benefit: physical activity.
People who use the bus in Kansas City take more steps per day than the average American, according to Grimes.
A walk to the bus station may not seem like a lot, but Grimes explains that incorporating more movement into daily life is linked to benefits when it comes to health factors like obesity, blood pressure and heart disease. “Every minute we can add really translates into improved health outcomes.”