Background: Many cities across the world are beginning to shift their mobility solution away from the private cars and towards more environmentally friendly and citizen-focused means. Hamburg, Oslo, Helsinki, and Madrid have recently announced their plans to become (partly) private car free cities. Other cities like Paris, Milan, Chengdu, Masdar, Dublin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Bogota, and Hyderabad have measures that aim at reducing motorized traffic including implementing car free days, investing in cycling infrastructure and pedestrianization, restricting parking spaces and considerable increases in public transport provision. Such plans and measures are particularly implemented with the declared aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These reductions are also likely to benefit public health.

1. CAR FREE CITIES
AND PUBLIC
HEALTH
Haneen Khreis, Institute for Transport Studies, Leeds
Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, ISGlobabl-CREAL, Barcelona

2. THE CAR
• The car is an important part of the transport system --
brought increased mobility, convenience, employment,
technological advances and economic prosperity
• To a large extent, the car defined the past century and is
hard to imagine a world without cars

3. THE CAR

4. THE CAR

5. THE CAR

6. THE CAR

7. A NEW MOVE
• Many cities are beginning
to shift their mobility
solutions away from the
private car and towards
more environmentally
friendly and citizen-
focused mobility

8. A NEW MOVE

9. A NEW MOVE

10. A NEW MOVE
• Hamburg, Helsinki, Madrid and Oslo (2019) have
recently announced their plans to become (partly)
private car free cities
• Other cities like Bogota, Brussels, Chengdu,
Copenhagen, Dublin, Hyderabad, Masdar, Milan, New
York and Paris have different measures that aim at
reducing traffic including implementing
• car free days
• investing in cycling infrastructure and pedestrianization
• restricting parking space
• considerable increases in public transport provision

11. WHY?
• Plans and measures are particularly implemented with the
declared aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Reductions in road traffic is also likely to benefit public
health, both in the short and long-term
• We aimed to scope and review the expected health benefits

12. CAR FREE CITIES: PATHWAYS TO
HEALTHY URBAN LIVING?

13. WHAT WE FOUND – AIR
POLLUTION
• Car traffic contributes to a considerable proportion of air
pollution in cities
• The extent varies depending on factors such as the car fleet
make up, car density, layout
• The range of the traffic contribution to urban PM
concentrations in Europe is from 9-53% for PM10 and 9-66%
for PM2.5 with an average of 39% and 43% at traffic sites
and a higher range for NO2 of over 80%

14. WHAT WE FOUND – AIR
POLLUTION AND NOISE
• Paris nitrogen dioxide dropped by up to 40% in parts of the
city on Sunday 27 September 2015, when cars were banned
• When the Tour de France cycling event came to Leeds, on
the day of the Grand Départ, when cars were banned from
the centre of Leeds and cyclists took over, NO2 levels
dropped by 20%
• Brussels Environment (2015) found a greater than 10 dB
reduction in noise levels on car free Sundays

15. AIR POLLUTION AND
PREMATURE MORTALITY
7% increased risk for premature mortality per 5 ug/m3 PM2.5, Beelen et al 2014

16. NOISE AND
CARDIOVASCULAR
DISEASE
Relative risk of 1.08 (95% confidence interval:
1.04,
1.13) per increase of the weighted day-night noise
level LDN of 10 dB (A)
8% increased risk of cardiovascular disease for a 10 dB (a) increase in noise,
Babisch 2014

17. WHAT WE FOUND – MOTOR
VEHICLE CRASHES

18. WHAT WE FOUND – MOTOR
VEHICLE CRASHES

19. WHAT WE FOUND –
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

20. Woodcock et al 2010

21. WHAT WE FOUND –
GREEN SPACE

22. WHAT WE FOUND –
GREEN SPACE

23. WHAT WE FOUND –
GREEN SPACE
4% reduction in cardiovascular mortality between highest and lowest green

24. SOME CONCERNS

25. SOME CONCERNS

26. SOME CONCERNS1154
659
599
376
116
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Physical activity
(95% CI: 858,1577)
Air pollution
(95% CI: 386, 834)
Noise
(95% CI: 0, 1009)
Heat
(95% CI: 324,442)
Green spaces
(95% CI: 0, 236)
Total number of premature deaths =2904 (1568, 4098), 20% of total deaths
Life expectancy= 360 (219, 493) days, Total cost 9.3 (4.9, 13.2) billion euros

27. SOME CONCERNS

28. SOME CONCERNS
• A concern for reducing car traffic in cities is the
reduction in retail sales
• Lawlor (2014) reviewed the effect of the reduction of
cars on impact on existing business performance
(footfall and retail); urban regeneration (new business,
rental income, employment, social exclusion etc.);
improved consumer and business perceptions, and
business diversity
• They found that case study evidence suggests that
well-planned improvements to these public spaces can
boost footfall and trading by up to 40%

29. SOME CONCERNS
• In Barcelona for example
average speeds for trips by
• Car is 23.5
km/hr
• Bike 14 km/hr
• Bus / tram 11.2
km/hr
• Metro / train 25 km/hr

30. CURRENT PARADIGM
Economic Growth
Travel Time Savings
Cost Effectiveness
Land-use
Accessibility
Noise Reductions
Equality
Providing for Cars
Efficiency
Safety Policy
IntegrationConnectivity
Economic Growth
Travel Time Savings
Cost Effectiveness
Land-use
Accessibility
Carbon
Reductions
Noise Reductions
Equality
Providing for Cars
Efficiency
Safety Policy
Integration Connectivity

31. BETTER PARADIGM
Economic Growth
Travel Time Savings
Cost Effectiveness
Land-use
Accessibility
Noise Reductions
Equality
Providing for Cars
Efficiency
Safety Policy
IntegrationConnectivity
Public Health
Travel Time Savings
Cost Effectiveness
Land-use
Accessibility
Carbon
Reductions
Noise Reductions
EqualityProviding for Cars
Efficiency
Safety Policy
Integration Connectivity

32. URGENT NEED FOR
SYSTEMIC
APPROACHES

33. URGENT NEED FOR
SYSTEMIC
APPROACHES

34. URGENT NEED FOR
SYSTMIC APPROACHES

35. • Car free cities can have considerable health benefits
• Our cities are too car dominated
• Transport planning and policy too much for the vehicle
and too little for the public and active transport modes
• Decades of planning and investments in car
infrastructure attracted cars to cities --it will take
decades to overturn this
• Large infrastructures for cars are in place and are
underway with relatively small parts of the budget
allocated to and little work done for cyclists and
pedestrians across most regions
• There is an urgent need to rebalance and provide
better, safer infrastructures and policy support for
active/ public transport
• New paradigms needed -- car free cities?