Why Cardno's Traffic Planner is finding more ways to move
Image: Senior Traffic Planner Alix Oakes from Perth, Western Australia
5 August 2019
There is no denying that transport and health are inextricably linked, and the more we move, the healthier we are.
According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), promoting healthy and sustainable transport options
prevents the negative effects of modern day transport patterns on human
health, such as those caused by physical inactivity.
Studies have shown that population patterns of physical activity are
influenced by physical and built environments, with features of the
built
environment such as low residential density and disconnected street
networks are progressively linked to lower levels of physical activity.
Cardno's Senior Transport Planner, Alix Oakes said that you don't have
to look hard to find research which points to health issues resulting
from sedentary lifestyle choices, including inactive transport modes.
"Walking, cycling, and even using
public transport where you have to
walk to, from and in between stops considerably increases our daily
physical activity levels," she said.
"Being outside amongst nature and other people in the community
also has significant positive impacts on our social and mental health.
Travelling by car reduces the chance of experiencing these benefits, and
the oversupply of parking has a detrimental impact on our built
environments and surrounding networks."
In November this year, Alix will
fly to Melbourne to deliver a presentation on the impact of parking
supply restrictions and influences of sedentary transport behaviour at
the International Conference on Transport and Health (ICTH).
The presentation will bring emphasis to her abstract submission, which
focuses on reducing the demand of parking at a major health and medical
campus in
Perth,
Western Australia.
For a number of years, Alix and her traffic and transport team have been
collecting travel data to monitor the travel behaviour associated with
the campus and find ways in which sustainable and
active transport modes
can be utilised.
Alix said her team found the link between the provision of parking and
people travelling by car was not at all surprising, however the evidence
of impactful behaviours was very strong.
"Too often we try to encourage people to 'do the right thing' and hope
they base their travel decisions on the bigger picture. Unpopular and as
difficult as it might be, sometimes you need to resort to the carrot and
stick approach," she said.
"The overarching aim of our work in the team is to lessen the
impact of transport on people and the environment. I believe the work is
undoubtedly having a positive impact on public health issues."
Regional Manager of Western
Australia and Northern Territory, Marino Evangelisti, said our focus in
the Transport sector is to balance the complexity of traffic needs
whilst assisting our stakeholders in delivering and maintaining more
livable, workable spaces to support sustainable development.
"As a business we are committed to providing sustainable solutions in
everything we do and I am proud of Alix for her dedication and
leadership she has demonstrated on this project," he said.
Alix's paper is the second highest scoring practitioner abstract
submission at ICTH and she will be amongst a select few high-scoring
abstract winners who will attend a special luncheon planned in their
honour on Friday 8 November.
"I am looking forward to hearing from other professionals about work in
this space, and bringing this knowledge back to our Cardno team for
application in our current projects," she said.
ICTH is the only conference in a world-wide market fully dedicated to
transport systems and health impacts.
The convention brings together policy-makers, practitioners, and
academics from multiple disciplines and professional sectors involved in
transport planning and engineering, public health, urban planning,
spatial and architectural design, environmental planning and economics
from across the globe.
--ENDS--
Source: Cardno - www.cardno.com
Contact: N/A
External Links: https://www.tphlink.com/icth-2019---melbourne.html
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