Comment 106591

By KevinLove (registered) | Posted December 04, 2014 at 21:53:37 in reply to Comment 106580

Ryan,

Yes, the local data is a superior source. I will use it from now on. Thank you for this source.

Durham Region was not part of the Medical Officers of Health report, which is why there was a slightly lower population base.

What is truly interesting is that, as you pointed out, using different sources results in almost identical results. That is one mark of reliable data.

The flip side of the harms done by car driving are the public health benefits of active transportation. Toronto's Medical Officer of Health has done excellent work in this area.

Mode shifting away form car driving and towards active transportation conveys a double benefit. One benefit is from not poisoning people and the other benefit is from improved health due to the moderate and regular exercise provided by active transportation.

This enables one to use both benefits to calculate the overall effect on public health of mode shift to Dutch levels of transportation mode share. In other words, a description of the public health benefits of moving to a transportation system that benchmarks cities such as Groningen.

Which means, in my not-so-abundant spare time, I really should be writing an article, "Let's Go Dutch: Transportation and Public Health." This would use local Hamilton data as well as the public health benefits that have actually been observed in The Netherlands. It would then estimate the public health effects that can be expected in Hamilton by adopting Dutch engineering standards for infrastructure and land use and thereby achieving Dutch transportation mode shares.

Comment edited by KevinLove on 2014-12-04 22:00:40

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