Walking, transport and health: do we have the right prescription?

Encouraging people to walk more in their everyday lives in order to improve the health of a population is an area of policy intervention which is receiving increasing attention from practitioners and researchers Most of the evidence for techniques that help the sedentary adopt physical activity comes from quasi-experimental and experimental intervention studies many of which examine various cognitive and behavioural strategies at the individual level. In comparison, interventions aimed at environmental, institutional and social levels remain largely unexplored. There is a need for more research on how to specifically target inactive subgroups at these levels. This paper discusses the commonalities between traffic reduction and health promotion strategies, which may be usefully employed to encourage walking for health in the UK. The authors conclude that there is growing evidence to suggest that motivational strategies alone are insufficient; greater emphasis needs to be placed on contextual environmental issues, and in particular planning for walking as a mode of transport needs to be explored in greater detail.