City planning and population health: a global challenge.
Significant global health challenges are being confronted in the 21st century, prompting calls to rethink approaches to disease prevention. A key part of the solution is city planning that reduces non-communicable diseases and road trauma while also managing rapid urbanisation. This Series of papers considers the health impacts of city planning through transport mode choices. In this, the first paper, we identify eight integrated regional and local interventions that, when combined, encourage walking, cycling, and public transport use, while reducing private motor vehicle use. These interventions are destination accessibility, equitable distribution of employment across cities, managing demand by reducing the availability and increasing the cost of parking, designing pedestrian-friendly and cycling-friendly movement networks, achieving optimum levels of residential density, reducing distance to public transport, and enhancing the desirability of active travel modes (eg, creating safe attractive neighbourhoods and safe, affordable, and convenient public transport). Together, these interventions will create healthier and more sustainable compact cities that reduce the environmental, social, and behavioural risk factors that affect lifestyle choices, levels of traffic, environmental pollution, noise, and crime. The health sector, including health ministers, must lead in advocating for integrated multisector city planning that prioritises health, sustainability, and liveability outcomes, particularly in rapidly changing low-income and middle-income countries. We recommend establishing a set of indicators to benchmark and monitor progress towards achievement of more compact cities that promote health and reduce health inequities.
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: b.giles-corti@unimelb.edu.au.
Billie
B
Giles-Corti
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Anne
A
Vernez-Moudon
Pontifical Catholic University of Parana, Parana, Brazil; Washington University at St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil.
Rodrigo
R
Reis
Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Gavin
G
Turrell
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Andrew L
AL
Dannenberg
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Hannah
H
Badland
University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
Sarah
S
Foster
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Melanie
M
Lowe
University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
James F
JF
Sallis
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Mark
M
Stevenson
Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Neville
N
Owen
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control; D001642:Bicycling; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000517:prevention & control; D002958:City Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003906:Developing Countries; D004779:Environment Design; D014943:Global Health; D000070497:Healthy Lifestyle; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D014186:Transportation / Q000379:methods; D014504:Urban Health; D016138:Walking