The relationship between active transportation and health

Active transportation has received attention for its environmental and health benefits. In this paper we use individual-level survey data from NHANES III to investigate the extent to which the number of minutes of bicycling and walking for transportation are associated with 10 health outcomes. We use instrumental variables to address the endogeneity caused by the complex relationship between exercise and health. We find mixed results indicating that active transportation is associated with improvements in some health outcomes such as weight and cholesterol, but not others such as systolic blood pressure and glycohemoglobin.