A Handy Tool to Advocate Active Mobility

Active mobility is so crucial in promoting physical activity that the World Health Organisation (WHO) provided a tool that could help cities quantify and monetize the effect of measures from promoting walking and cycling. This web-based tool called The Health Economic Assessment Tool or HEAT can be access through https://www.heatwalkingcycling.org/ 

This tool supports assessments of the health and economic impacts of walking and cycling on premature mortality in an integrated manner through changes in physical activity levels, exposure to air pollution while walking or cycling, and risk of fatal crashes in traffic. In addition, the tool also estimates the impacts on carbon emissions due to shifts between active and motorized travel modes.

For local municipalities, HEAT and other interested stakeholders can compute the expected impact of the measures of their active mobility strategies (ex-ante) and evaluate the results of the implemented measures (ex-post). The tool guarantees a robust scientific standard, reflecting the latest research, and transparency of assumptions, through an elaborate expert consensus process. For more information of the HEAT and the method and user guide for active mobility from WHO, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/health-economic-assessment-tool-(heat)-for-walking-and-for-cycling 

Reference

Koszowski, C., Gerike, R., Hubrich, S., Götschi, T., Pohle, M., & Wittwer, R. (2019). Active mobility: bringing together transport planning, urban planning, and public health. In Towards User-Centric Transport in Europe (pp. 149-171). Springer, Cham.

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