Two UBC researchers have published a paper reporting that transit users are three times more likely than car commuters to meet recommended U.S. guidelines for physical activity through walking.

In the Journal of Health Policy, graduate student Ugo Lachapelle and associate professor Lawrence Frank of the school of community and regional planning wrote that making "transit incentives" more widely available might increase the proportion of people walking more often.

"Having and using an employer-sponsored transit pass was also associated with meeting the physical activity recommendation when compared with both non-walkers and moderate walkers," they wrote in their conclusion. "These relationships proved significant after controlling for income, age, ethnicity, and measures of the built environment. Whether these results may be caused by transit users' preference for an active lifestyle, travel constraints, or choice of residential location warrants further analysis."

They based their study on surveys of 4,156 people in the Atlanta area.