Abstract
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To present national estimates regarding walking or cycling for commuting in Brazil and in 10 metropolitan regions.METHODS By using data from the Health section of 2008’s Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio (Brazil’s National Household Sample Survey), we estimated how often employed people walk or cycle to work, disaggregating our results by sex, age range, education level, household monthly income per capita, urban or rural address, metropolitan regions, and macro-regions in Brazil. Furthermore, we estimated the distribution of this same frequency according to quintiles of household monthly income per capita in each metropolitan region of the country.RESULTS A third of the employed men and women walk or cycle from home to work in Brazil. For both sexes, this share decreases as income and education levels rise, and it is higher among younger individuals, especially among those living in rural areas and in the Northeast region of the country. Depending on the metropolitan region, the practice of active transportation is two to five times more frequent among low-income individuals than among high-income individuals.CONCLUSIONS Walking or cycling to work in Brazil is most frequent among low-income individuals and the ones living in less economically developed areas. Active transportation evaluation in Brazil provides important information for public health and urban mobility policy-making
Highlights
Using active modes of transport in cities, such as walking or cycling, brings benefits to people’s health[10,30,31] and to the population – examples include the reduction in pollution and traffic accidents[11,23,30,31]
Walking or cycling to work in Brazil is most frequent among low-income individuals and the ones living in less economically developed areas
This study used data from the Health section of Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio (PNAD – Brazil’s National Household Sample Survey), which was conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2008a
Summary
Using active modes of transport in cities, such as walking or cycling, brings benefits to people’s health[10,30,31] and to the population – examples include the reduction in pollution and traffic accidents[11,23,30,31]. The most common active transport modes, such as walking or cycling, are related to individual factors (age, sex, income, education), environmental factors (climate, topography, and built environment), and characteristics that are specific to each itinerary, such as the distance to be covered, the reason for the travel, and its cost[2,22]. Taken together, these factors help us understand why the proportion of people who use active transport varies across countries[1,9], regions or cities[12,25], and socioeconomic strata of the population[14]. The extent of these effects varies according to income and age[14]
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