Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: a case report of one cyclist in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tripette J, Ohta Y (2018)

Notice: November the 15th, 2018
This research note has been written based on data collected with the aim of training on new
data collection and structuring tools. The note has NOT been peer-reviewed.
However, we believe that the data collected may bear some interest. Therefore, we decided
to publish the results in the form of a preprint article.
We recommend to cite this research note as follows:
Tripette J, Ohta Y. Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: a case report ofonecyclist
intheTokyo
metropolitanarea.
2018.
Availableat:
http://www.eng.ocha.ac.jp/Tripette_Site/Tripette&Ohta2018_Main.pdf. Accessed [here putthe date you accessed the manuscript]

Supplementary file available at:
http://www.eng.ocha.ac.jp/Tripette_Site/Tripette&Ohta2018_Suppl.pdf

Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: a case report of one cyclist in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tripette J, Ohta Y (2018)

Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: A case report of one cyclist in
the Tokyo metropolitan area

Tripette Julien1*, Ohta Yuji1
1

Department of Human and Environmental Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

Running title: Co-benefits of active travelling* Corresponding author:
Julien Tripette,
Ochanomizu University, comprehensive research building, room 712
2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo District, Tokyo, Japan, 112-8610
Tel : +81-3-5978-2036
Email : tripette.julien@ocha.ac.jp

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Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: a case report of one cyclist in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tripette J, Ohta Y (2018)

Abstract
Background: Little data are available on bicycle travelling in the Tokyo Metropolitan area.
The present study aimed to quantify the extent of health, time, and financial co-benefits ofactive travelling in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Methods: This case report is about one non-active Tokyo inhabitant who decided to switchfrom sedentary public transportation to active travelling. Geographic and time data fromtravels registered for 11 months in the Runkeeper application were extracted a posteriori.
Travels completed by bicycle were identified and compared to the travels on corresponding
routes using public transportation with reference to estimated cost and duration. The
subject also reported the results of two maximal oxygen consumption tests that heperformed before and after the observation period.
Results: Over the 11-month observation period, the subject travelled a total of 3,959 km,
which was completed in 16,513 min. The corresponding public transportation duration wasestimated at 23,576 min, resulting in an active travelling-related time benefit of 4 days 21 hand 43 min. The financial benefit was estimated to be between 125,620 and 177,120 ¥.
Additionally, an increase of 6.8 ml/kg/min in maximal oxygen consumption was noted.
Conclusion: In addition to improvement in physical fitness, adopting active travelling habits
seem to induce significant time and financial benefits. Larger scale intervention studies areneeded. Communicating on active travelling co-benefits may be a promising physical activity
promotion tool.
Keywords: Active travel, active commuting, bicycle, active lifestyle

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Introduction
Active travelling, sometimes referred as active transportation or active mobility, describes
the activity of moving by using transportation means that require the traveler to bephysically active, e.g., walking, cycling, and roller skating. Despite the existence ofcontrasting findings in the literature [1-3], one may believe that active traveling can play animportant role in the prevention of non-communicable diseases by changing sedentarytransportation habits into exercising habits. In urban areas, active travelling is also
considered a promising option to control a number of important problems such as traffic
congestion, inhabitant’s exposure to pollutant agents, and noise pollution.
A bicycle is commonly viewed as one of the most suitable active transportation means,
especially in flat or less hilly areas. Therefore, an increasing number of cities are integrating
bicycle lanes and bicycle sharing services in their transportation networks [4-5]. Policies
implementing negative or positive financial incentives have also been tested in different
locations and might be considered as an option to promote active travelling at larger scales[6]. At the individual level, such short-term rewards may indeed be more effective than themore distant health-related benefits, yielding easier behavioral changes.
Several studies have been interested in active commuting habits in Japan [7]. Some of theseinvestigated the interaction with the built environment, while others showed a reduced risk
for non-communicable diseases in active commuters [8]; however, possibly due to thecomplexity of conducting an intervention study on this subject, no report has yet described
the potential time and financial related benefits of active travelling, in particular in theTokyo Metropolitan area. The present report explores the health, time, and financial
benefits of active travelling for one inhabitant of the Tokyo metropolitan area, who switchedfrom sedentary public transportation to a systematic usage of bicycle. The observation
period was 11 months.

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MethodThe case, data extraction process, and data analysis method have been described further inthe supplementary file.
The subject was a healthy 32-year-old Caucasian man living and working in two different
wards of the Tokyo 23 metropolitan area. The subject declared to have progressively
switched from an active to sedentary lifestyle in the course of his twenties. He reported no
regular physical activity in the 6-year period preceding the observation period and had neverbeen diagnosed with any chronic disease. At the beginning of the observation period, thesubject presented a BMI of 24.6kg/m2. On April 2013, he bought a one-gear 27-inch utility
bicycle (commonly called “mamachari”) and decided to systematically use it to travel within
the Tokyo Metropolitan area. He registered all the bicycle travels, which he would otherwise
have done using public transportations, in the GPS-based smartphone application
Runkeeper (FitnessKeeper, MA, USA) from May 12th 2013, to March 31st 2014. He agreed toshare this 11-month travel record. The Ethical Committee of the Ochanomizu University for
Biomedical Research has approved the study protocol (ref: 2018-3). The subject gave his
written consent to participate to the study. The data extraction and treatment have been
explained in detail in the supplementary file.
For each travel, a cost estimation of the same route using public transportations wasperformed. First, a “low price” estimation was done by selecting the cheapest routesuggested by Google Map. If the latter included walking segments lasting more than 20minutes, a second estimation was performed to match a more “natural use” of public
transportations. The sum of all “low price” estimations represents the minimal saving thatcan be expected by travelling actively for an 11-month period in the Tokyo metropolitan
area. In order to reflect a more realistic expectation of pecuniary benefits, the previous
calculation was also majored by incorporating the difference between “natural use” and“low price” estimations when relevant. In addition, the duration of each travel was

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subtracted to compute the estimated duration of the fastest corresponding public
transportation route suggested by Google Map. The sum of these differences represents aconservative estimation of time gain that is possibly achievable by travelling actively for an
11-month period in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Finally, the subject reported the results of two ergo-cyclometer ramp tests, which wereperformed in December 2012 and April 2014, at the same location. These tests provided
body weight and maximal oxygen consumption data measured before and after theobservation period.

Results
Data quality
Of the 659 entries identified on the Runkeeper application for the 11-month observation
period, 574 were used for the estimation of public transportation costs, while 556 were usedfor the comparison between bicycle and public transportation durations. More details about
the treatment of corrupted data and data quality results can be found in the supplementary
file.

Travelling habits
Over the 11-month observation period, the subject completed 574 active travels. Of the 556
entries where distances were available, it has been determined that the subject completed atotal of 3,959 km. The application reported an average speed of 14.9 km/h. Ninety-nine
percent of travels were completed inside the Tokyo 23 special wards area. Travels shorter
than 5 km, between 5 and 10 km, and over 10 km accounted for 18, 78, and 4% of the active
travelling time, respectively. The longest recorded travel was 20.0 km. The longest distancetravelled in one day was 40.1 km. The commuting route was typically covered a distance of 8
to 9 km, and it accounted for 66% of the active travelling time. It consisted of 1) small roads

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Health, time, and financial co-benefits of active travelling: a case report of one cyclist in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tripette J, Ohta Y (2018)with low traffic in high density residential areas (Fig. 1A, 62% of the route), 2) multilane
boulevards with higher traffic (Fig. 1B, 22% of the route), and sidewalks with bicycle lanes(Fig. 1C 16%). The average elevation was 93 m. Thus, a typical working day consisted ofabout 17 km. The Runkeeper application reported an average speed of 15.3 km/h for all thecommuting travels, resulting in 1 h 07 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity per
working day. Other recurrent routes included visits to the nearest commercial district,community center, children’s school, etc.

Figure 1. A. An example of small roads found in Tokyo high density residential areas. B. An example ofmultilane boulevards found in Tokyo. C. An example of sidewalk integrating both walking (left) andbicycle (right) lanes. Taken from Google Street View (under the fair use agreement).

Time benefits
Over the 11-month observation period, the subject spent a total of 16,513 minutes (or 11days 11 h 13 min) in active travelling. The corresponding public transportation duration wasestimated at 23,576 min (16 days 8 h 56 min) resulting in a time benefit of 7,063 min (4 days21 h 43 min). More details on the active travelling-related time benefits have beenpresented in Table 1.

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Table 1. Estimated time and pecuniary benefits of active travelling in TokyoNTravels

Time (min)Fastest publicN
Bike

Cost (¥)
Route 1

Route 2transportation
All

556

23,576

16,513

574

176,730

125,620

Commuting 343

15,744

10,935343

111,520

65,210Non-214

7,832

5,578

231

65,21060,020< 5km131

3,7712,461

131

27,56023,890

5–9.9km402

18,39912,900419

132,550

86,410≥ 1024

1,406

1,153

24

12,000

11,230commuting

In total, 574 travels were identified and used for the public transportation cost estimation. Only 556
of them with properly recorded or recovered time and distance data were used for the time
estimation shown in this table. Route 1: Cheapest route suggested by Google Map, which may include
travels with over 20 min walking segments (referred in the text as “low price” estimation); Route 2:
Cheapest route suggested by Google Map that excludes travels with over 20 min walking segments(referred in the text as “natural use” estimation).

Pecuniary benefits
According to the “low price” estimation, the completion of the 574 travels using public
transportations corresponding to the 574 active travels would have cost 125,620 ¥. The“natural use” estimation indicated a cost of 177,120 ¥. Thus, the pecuniary benefits that canbe expected from an 11-month period of active travelling in the Tokyo Metropolitan area
would be somewhere between 120,000 and 180,000 ¥. More details on the active travellingrelated pecuniary benefits have been shown in Table 1.

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Changes in physical fitness
The maximal oxygen consumption capacity of the subject increased by 6.8 points (43.7 to50.5 ml/kg/min) between December 2012 and April 2014. During the same period, thesubject lost 3.0 kg (82.3 to 79.3).

Discussion
The present case allowed a quantitative estimation of some co-benefits of active travellingin the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. Over the 11-month observation period, the subject
was able to 1) reduce his transportation time by 4 days 21 h 43 min, 2) save a minimum of125,620 ¥ on transportation fees, and 3) improve his overall physical fitness with a 6.8-point
gain in VO2 max and a 3.0 kg weight loss.

The time benefit observed in the present study may be considered a minimal estimation.
First, the duration of corrupted entries were replaced by the average duration of similar
travels completed in the same direction plus one standard deviation (see supplementaryfile), resulting in conservative figures for 140 of the 556 bicycle travels. Second, 18 missing
travels could not be retrieved and were consequently not included in the estimation. It istherefore likely that the actual time benefit significantly exceed 5 days, which represents a
considerable amount of time in one of the most holiday-deprived nations among thedeveloped countries.
The pecuniary benefits have been estimated between 125,620 and 176,730 ¥, which, in theTokyo Metropolitan area, would be equivalent to a 1 to 1.5 months’ rent for a 3–4-member
family. While these figures may be lowered relative to the cost of a brand new mamacharitype bicycle (which costs 12,000–24,000 ¥), maintenance fees (7,000 ¥), and parking fees
(6,300 ¥), the overall picture suggests that adopting active travelling habits could contribute

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to a better work-life balance, not only by making more time available for leisure or family
activities, but also by providing the necessary funding for these activities.
Finally, the 3.0 kg weight loss and 6.8-point increase in VO2 max observed in the present casecertainly represent promising outcomes for the active travelling enthusiasts who are willingto maintain a healthy lifestyle. According to Laukkanen et al. [9], such an improvement inphysical fitness would reduce the risk of mortality by 50% for all the causes of mortality. In
addition, bicycling is usually categorized as a moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [10], andbicycling for a distance similar to the commuting route of the present case would help fulfill
most of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for daily physical activity(WHO).

LimitationsFirst, the case study design does not allow us to make overall conclusions on the co-benefitsof active travelling, not even in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. The subject’s VO2 max at thebeginning of the observation period (43.7 ml/kg/min) may reflect a good aerobic capacity,and individuals with lower physical fitness may not be able to maintain a similar pace. Inaddition, active commute was the most important contributor to the time gain (-4,805 min,cf. Table 1) and the present observations cannot prevail for cases where the commuting
routes may present a different profile (shorter or longer distance, higher elevation, higher
proportion of small roads in high density residential areas, etc.). Second, while the safetyissue is a recurrent focus in studies on active travelling, the present report did not address
this dimension [11]. Para-data from interviews with the subject indicated his willingness tomaintain a high pace during travels without compromising with the traffic code. However,this subject has been a victim of one collision with another bicycle while he was walking withhis own bicycle in a parking lot area. He reported no physical damage. Finally, the subject
also admitted to feeling at risk when riding on multilane boulevards. Third, one may believe

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Tripette J, Ohta Y (2018)that the improvement in physical fitness could have been induced by some structured
exercise activities performed during the observation period. Apart from active travellingactivities, the subject declared that he did not engage in regular exercise habits. Only, 30
leisure running activities were registered in the application. They consisted of sessions
comprising 2.1 to 14.6 km runs (average distance: 7.4 km), a significant part of which werecompleted during holiday periods (summer and winter). While the contribution of these 30
running activities to the increase in maximal oxygen consumption capacity cannot beoverlooked, the overall picture of the present case would suggest that the 574 active travels
performed by bicycle also had significant impact.

To summarize, the present case study aimed at offering insight on possible individual-level
co-benefits of active travelling in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Over a nearly 1-year periodof active traveling, the subject gained approximately 5 days equivalent to the transportation
time, saved over 120,000 ¥ on transportation fees, and significantly improved his physicalfitness. Communicating on time and financial co-benefits could be a powerful individuallevel promotion tool. The present results should encourage researchers to design large scalestudies investigating individual-level factors that would favor active travelling behaviors inJapanese people.

Acknowledgement
The authors declare no conflicts of interest and thank the subject for having shared hisRunkeeper application data and for his collaboration during the data extraction process.

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