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Cycle commuters live longer says 15 year study of people's mobility habits

Analysis of 3.5 million people found 13 per cent reduction in mortality

A major study from New Zealand has provided further evidence that people who cycle to work live longer than those who don’t, reports TV NZ’s 1 News.

Compiled over 15 years, researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington and the University of Auckland, as well as Australia’s University of Melbourne, studied Census-Mortality records of 3.5 million people to reach their conclusion.

According to lead researcher Dr Caroline Shaw of the University of Otago, Wellington, people who commuted by bike experienced a 13 per cent reduction in mortality during the study period.

She said that health benefits related to physical activity were the most likely explanation for the reduced mortality among cycle-commuters, and that no similar reduction had been observed among people who walked to work or used public transport to get there.

According to Dr Shaw, the study is one of the biggest ever to look at the link between mortality and how people travel to work.

She said: “We studied 80 per cent of the working-age population of New Zealand over a 15-year period, so it is highly representative.”

According to the study, 80 per cent of people went to work by car on the day of the Census, but just 5 per cent travelled by foot and cycling was even lower, at 3 per cent, and Dr Shaw said that the results could boost efforts to get more people commuting by bike.

She said: “Increasing cycling for commuting to work in a country with low levels of cycling like New Zealand will require policies directed at both transport and urban planning, such as increasing housing density and implementing cycling networks.”

Previous studies we have highlighted here on road.cc about the benefits of commuting by bike include one from 2014 which found that people who rode to work were happier and more productive than their co-workers, and another we posted on the live blog last year which said that cycle commuters could save more than £1,000 a year.

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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4 comments

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matthewn5 | 4 years ago
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mdavidford | 4 years ago
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Quote:

no similar reduction had been observed among people who walked to work

I doubt they're comparing like with like here though. I would guess that the duration of walking commutes would tend to skew shorter, due to including a section of people who are walking 5 mins round the corner, as compared to cycling, where a lot of people wouldn't consider it worth getting the bike out for a journey that would only take 5 minutes, and would walk instead. So on average those cycling are getting more exercise simply because of the length of trip that the different modes tend to get selected for.

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Xena | 4 years ago
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This is just about doing some exercise not really about the bike if you get me . ( you should lift some weights ) If you ran every day chances are you would be healthy . If you take the car sit there stuffing food down your face because your bored stuck in traffic then get home and stuff more food down your face " that's your life " then your probably going to die earlier unless your lucky and if your one those then stuff your face ,drink take all the drugs and enjoy yourself , you have my respect . laugh

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eburtthebike | 4 years ago
5 likes

Yet another highly reliable study showing that cycling is fantastically beneficial to your health, and I have no doubt that the msm will begin ignoring it immediately.  Where's the picture of the marathon again, the one illustrating the wide coverage of a single report about running a marathon being good for your health?

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