SynthesisHealth & place2019
Title: Can changing the physical environment promote walking and cycling? A systematic review of what works and how.
Synthesis in Health & place, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impacts of built environment changes on physical activity in Canada: a systematic review of natural experiments.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of interventions in the built environment on physical activity levels: a systematic umbrella review.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review with Framework Synthesis of the Ways That Urban Environments Influence Opportunities for Healthy and Sustainable Mobility in Older Age.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Shaping Pathways to Child Health: A Systematic Review of Street-Scale Interventions in City Streets.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The evidence for the impact of policy on physical activity outcomes within the school setting: A systematic review.Journal of sport and health science · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of the built environment on physical activity: a systematic review of longitudinal studies taking sex/gender into account.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2020Pooled it
- A systematic review of the effect of infrastructural interventions to promote cycling: strengthening causal inference from observational data.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2019Pooled it
- Scoping review of public attitudes to government active travel interventions in the UK.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Promote older adults active travel on neighborhood streets: an observation study in Daokou ancient town in China.BMC geriatrics · 2025Observational
- Cycling infrastructure as a determinant of cycling for recreation and transportation in Montréal, Canada: a natural experiment using the longitudinal national population health survey.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
- Article
- Evidence on the effectiveness and equity of population-based policies to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes: a narrative review.Diabetologia · 2025Review
- Article
- Urban physical activity for neurogenesis: infrastructure limitations.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Detecting environmental barriers affecting older adult pedestrians via Gramian angular field-based CNN of smartphone sensor data.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Understanding how and why travel mode changes: analysis of longitudinal qualitative interviews.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Article
- Effects of virtual exposure to urban greenways on mental health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- High street retail environment interventions and their theorised impacts on health and wellbeing: A scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- An Overview of How the Built Environment Relates to Children's Health.Current environmental health reports · 2023Review
- Effects of major urban redesign on sedentary behavior, physical activity, active transport and health-related quality of life in adults.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Environmental changes aimed at encouraging walking or cycling may promote activity and improve health, but evidence suggests small or inconsistent effects in practice. Understanding how an intervention works might help explain the effects observed and provide guidance about generalisability. We therefore aimed to review the literature on the effects of this type of intervention and to understand how and why these may or may not be effective. We searched eight electronic databases for existing systematic reviews and mined these for evaluative studies of physical environmental changes and assessed changes in walking, cycling or physical activity. We then searched for related sources including quantitative or qualitative studies, policy documents or reports. We extracted information on the evidence for effects ('estimation'), contexts and mechanisms ('explanation') and assessed credibility, and synthesised material narratively. We identified 13 evaluations of interventions specifically targeting walking and cycling and used 46 related sources. 70% (n = 9 evaluations) scored 3 or less on the credibility criteria for effectiveness. 6 reported significant positive effects, but higher quality evaluations were more likely to report positive effects. Only two studies provided rich evidence of mechanisms. We identified three common resources that interventions provide to promote walking and cycling: (i) improving accessibility and connectivity; (ii) improving traffic and personal safety; and (iii) improving the experience of walking and cycling. The most effective interventions appeared to target accessibility and safety in both supportive and unsupportive contexts. Although the evidence base was relatively limited, we were able to understand the role of context in the success of interventions. Researchers and policy makers should consider the context and mechanisms which might operate before evaluating and implementing interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.