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Study finds bus and train commuters healthier than people who ride bikes to work

Bike riders were more likely to be overweight and to have diabetes or high blood pressure

A study from Japan suggests that people who commute by public transport may be healthier than those who ride a bike to work, being less likely to be overweight or to have diabetes or high blood pressure.

Researchers at Osaka’s Moriguchi City Health Examination Centre examined the commuting habits of almost 6,000 people.

They found that those who commute by train or bus were 44 per cent less likely to be obese than car drivers. Compared to motorists, public transport users were 27 per cent less likely to have high blood pressure and 34 per cent less likely to have diabetes.

The surprising finding however was that bus and train users were also in better health than those who commute by pedal power, with lower incidence of being overweight or having diabetes or high blood pressure.

One potential explanation, according to the researchers, is that because bus or train travel isn’t typically door to door, people who commute using those modes may get more exercise than cyclists – or at least those who ride short distances to work – since they have to walk to or from the station or bus stop.

- Cycling could help reduce £10bn annual diabetes bill say MPs

The study’s lead author, Dr Hisako Tsuji, said: "If it takes longer than 20 minutes one-way to commute by walking or cycling, many people seem to take public transportation or a car in urban areas of Japan.

"People should consider taking public transportation instead of a car, as a part of daily, regular exercise. It may be useful for healthcare providers to ask patients about how they commute."

According to the research, men were more likely to drive a car to work, while women were more likely to use public transport or to walk or cycle.

The study’s authors however were unable to determine whether taking public transport in itself had a positive impact on health, or whether it was the case that people using buses or trains were healthier in the first place.

They also noted that with lower levels of obesity in Japan, the results if the study might bot be directly applicable to western countries.

– New study confirms weight loss effect of commuting by bike

Earlier this year, London-based cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, in an editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, said it was a “myth” that exercise could help obese people lose weight.

Instead, he blamed poor diet rather than lack of exercise as being behind the rise in prevalence of obesity, and said people needing to lose weight should be encouraged to eat more healthily.

– Value of exercise in fighting obesity a "myth" claim experts

However, Professor Mark Baker from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, which sets guidelines for health in England and Wales, said it was "idiotic" to downplay the value of exercise.

 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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19 comments

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DaveE128 | 8 years ago
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One has to bear in mind that public transport in Japan is far less likely to raise your blood pressure than British public transport!

Sounds like there are too many locally specific variables for this to have any meaning in the UK.

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Sakurashinmachi | 8 years ago
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This is a really, really misleading article - as noted above, the photo and title suggest that commuter cyclists in the UK would be fitter if they took public transport, which is ludicrous.

I lived in Japan for a long time and basically no-one COMMUTES to work by bicycle in Japan - they just use bikes, which are usually cheap step-throughs, to link home and the nearest railway station or to go to the shops, or to run the kids to school.  And usually for short trips, done at just above walking pace, so no real fitness effect.  So basically there's no point talking about this study because it has no relevance to commuting by bike in the UK or Australia.  I'd suggest that the reason why cyclists have worse health in this study - presuming that that's even correct - is because the cyclists they surveyed were old and simply in poor health already.  I'm willing to bet none of them were riding 20 kms to work every day and still obese and with diabetes.  It's also worth pointing out that the Japanese definition of "obese" is different to that in the UK, US or Australia - for my height (178cm) they suggest that I should be 70kg - compare that to the Australian one which suggests an upper range of 79kg.

http://www.zenshakyo.org/kokorotokarada/kenko/diet/popup02.html

http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-eating/Pages/bmi-calculator.as...

And commuting by car simply doesn't happen in Tokyo, or Osaka for that matter, so I'm really puzzled how they found sufficient car commuters in Osaka to draw meaningful conclusions for their study.  It's possible that they surveyed a rural area, where people do use cars to commute, but in that case they shouldn't've been drawing conclusions about urban areas.   

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OmuGuy replied to Sakurashinmachi | 8 years ago
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Sakurashinmachi wrote:

And commuting by car simply doesn't happen in Tokyo, or Osaka for that matter, so I'm really puzzled how they found sufficient car commuters in Osaka to draw meaningful conclusions for their study.  

The impression of the word "commute" in my mind is half an hour or more on a train or in a car going to and from work. In this study, as far as we can tell, the people were going to work within a suburb of Osaka. In English, rather than call that commuting, we'd probably just call it 'going to work'. 
The study looks piss poor and the reporting of it is little better, but asserting that no-one commutes by car in urban Japan is also off the mark. If lots of people didn't do it, Osaka City would not have "No My-Car Days" . 
Who commutes by car in Japan? People with work parking spaces such as company owners and executives, and shop owners, people who use cars in business (salesmen, gas fitters, deliverers). The people commuting by car may be leaving Moriguchi for destinations outside that city, maybe heading north over the river, or they may be commuting within the city. Without information about length of journey, the small sample sizes are essentially meaningless.

 

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Perotnik | 8 years ago
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Well, yeah; most commuters take up cycling because they're too lazy to walk, not as a replacemnt for a car.

Would be interesting to see how commuters' health correlates with distance travelled.

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Xwheels | 8 years ago
1 like

Interesting 'study' , appears to defy the laws of physics

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ChairRDRF | 8 years ago
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Beatnik69 makes a good point. Also, we don't know how long the journeys made by bike are - they may be very short.

 

Also, they don't go into the issue of whether ublic transport users tend to be healthier in the first place, as they admit.

 

All in all, a headline grabber which doesn't actually relate to any concrete evidence against all the evidence which suggests the exact opposite.

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Bigfoz | 8 years ago
2 likes

Maybe the train commuters are thinner because of how they get squashed int the trains every day...

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velobetty | 8 years ago
2 likes

I'm starting to realise that cycling is a terrible way of getting around London. It's dangerous, stressful, polluted and unpleasant. Compared to the bus where you can daydream, look out of the window, listen to music and not have to deal with people constantly trying to kill you.

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bikebot replied to velobetty | 8 years ago
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velobetty wrote:

I'm starting to realise that cycling is a terrible way of getting around London. It's dangerous, stressful, polluted and unpleasant. Compared to the bus where you can daydream, look out of the window, listen to music and not have to deal with people constantly trying to kill you.

Yeah, had my closest near miss in a year yesterday, driver pulled out on me from just a few metres away.  I think it was just the force of my shout that stopped him or I'd have landed on his hood.

The weather does little to put me off cycling in the Winter, it's how much worse the average driver becomes once it's cold and dark.  Those sort of incidents do shake you up, but still back on the bike today.

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jollygoodvelo replied to velobetty | 8 years ago
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velobetty wrote:

I'm starting to realise that cycling is a terrible way of getting around London. It's dangerous, stressful, polluted and unpleasant. Compared to the bus where you can daydream, look out of the window, listen to music and not have to deal with people constantly trying to kill you.

Unless they're people who >are< trying to kill you.  Or sneezing, coughing, vomiting or otherwise generally being unsanitary.  

 

Another point not raised in the article - cultural norms.  You won't find many senior executives cycling to work in Japan, or many 'highly successful' people.  So the demographics of health come into play - poor people have worse health, even in Japan, and poor people are more likely to cycle.

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kitsunegari replied to velobetty | 8 years ago
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velobetty wrote:

I'm starting to realise that cycling is a terrible way of getting around London. It's dangerous, stressful, polluted and unpleasant. Compared to the bus where you can daydream, look out of the window, listen to music and not have to deal with people constantly trying to kill you.

The mindset TFL are keen to promote.

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50kcommute | 8 years ago
1 like

The content on this website is going downhill fast

 

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mike the bike | 8 years ago
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I don't doubt the truth of this study for one moment.  When I was a young chap, entering my first season of races, my father, who annointed himself with the title "Coach", spent many happy hours encouraging me to improve by calling me a fat, lazy git.

Now that I'm an old commuter I can't possibly be as good as I was, so it follows I must be worse than a fat, lazy git.

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Paul J | 8 years ago
5 likes

Can you please link to the actual study when you publish stories about studies? You havn't even given the names of the researchers, or where this was published.

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earth | 8 years ago
8 likes

News just in - most people in doctors surgeries are found to be ill.

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davenportmb | 8 years ago
7 likes

I think the headline's pretty misleading and should read "Japanese study finds bus and train commuters healthier than people who ride bikes to work" - the picture of London rush-hour traffic certainly doesn't help. 

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danthomascyclist | 8 years ago
1 like

Quote:

One potential explanation, according to the researchers, is that because bus or train travel isn’t typically door to door, people who commute using those modes may get more exercise than cyclists – or at least those who ride short distances to work – since they have to walk to or from the station or bus stop.

Insightful. So what it's saying is "people who do lots of walking before and after getting on a bus or train are healthier than those that only ride really short distances".

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Beatnik69 | 8 years ago
4 likes

Perhaps many of the cyclists have decided to commute as a way of improving their health.

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OmuGuy replied to Beatnik69 | 8 years ago
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Beatnik69 wrote:

Perhaps many of the cyclists have decided to commute as a way of improving their health.

That isn't how things are in Japan...

Moriguchi is in ‘Greater Osaka’. Major routes from Osaka to Kyoto and beyond pass through it. The data was collected at health checks conducted by a health center in Moriguchi City. Normally, these medicals are subsidized by  city government health funds and would be limited to Moriguchi residents. There is no indication, however, wheter the scheme was open to local businesses to enable out-of-town employees to check their health.

At the presentation, the age ranges probably would have been indicated. Most people who voluntarily get annual health checks in Japan are either chronically ill or in their mid 40s or over. An age and gender break down would have been interesting. The implication is that commuting was within or to outside Moriguchi. The author simply suggests that people in Japan go by car or take public transport if the journey time would otherwise be more than 20 min.

Imagine the questionnaire:
How do get to work?
Car. Train. Bus. [?Motorcycle/Scooter]. Bicycle. Walk.
This format makes no allowance for distance or type of bicycle (electronic assist). Data analysis simply revealed relatively greater obesity and diabetes among people who circled “Bicycle”. So, the brilliant researcher thinks it plausible that walking to and from the station or bus stop is enough to account for the difference.  ​ 

The paper fails to mention that, for safety reasons, many Japanese companies specify that full-time employees are *not* allowed to cycle to work. And, in Japan, decent employers pay the commuting fees of their employees. One implication of this is that public-transport commuters have full-time jobs and are better paid. Unfortunately, occupation and income were not part of the data analysis.
I suspect that people who cycle to work tend to be poorer people who work in the service industry and do not have their commuting paid for by the company. If the cyclists are poorer, a JPY 7,000 low-geared 'comfort cycle' would be a good investment to save on fares. 'Free' transport would be useful if you were reemployed every six months at a different branch of some franchise (another local quirk). 

Cycling is more energy efficient than walking. If you don't raise your pulse, you are not going to see any health benefit. Moriguchi mostly occupies what used to be a flood plain: it is generally flat. The steepest inclines are ramps to go over the bridges crossing the drainage channels. On a comfort cycle, locally called a mamachari, a rider would be lucky to average 8 kph. According to the researcher’s suggestion that 20 min is the journey limit, commuting might involve a 5 km return journey. During most of the year, the cyclists in this study probably arrive sweatless at their site of drudgery.
If the cyclists are poorer they are likely to eat more cheap food (i.e., carbs) and would tend to be fatter. 

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