Encouraging people to make short journeys by bicycle or on foot rather than driving is key to the Government’s aim to get the public fitter in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.
Public health minister, Caroline Flint, will be working with other government departments, including the Department for Transport, to develop the strategy that is particularly aimed at those who take no physical activity.
‘If we could continue to encourage more people to travel by bicycle or on foot for [short] journeys we would overcome traffic congestion and improve health,’ she said, stressing the £1bn annual cost to the NHS of obesity.
Key to the strategy would be ‘looking at what local authorities can do in terms of improving the built environment’, such as investing in cycle paths.