Sustainable urban mobility in the "healthy cities“. The case of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

1. Introduction and objectives Public Health is using the “healthy cities” approach to improve health promotion in urban areas and to create more sustainable

welfare contexts. A "healthy city" is one giving high priority to health in all its actions. Cities can influence the social behaviours of individuals, from which it ensues that there can be an impact on the healthy behaviour patterns of groups. An example of collective action is to be found in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain). This relates to the use of bicycles by doctors and nurses in their work as a means of transport for supporting home care. To spread the use of bicycles among health-care professionals, and even among other categories of worker, it was decided to use the theoretical framework of social networks . The objectives are:

1.  To justify the use of bicycles in the workplace as a strategy for a healthy city. 2.  To propose a conceptual framework for analyzing the characteristics of the network of professionals Vitoria-Gasteiz and its

ability to spread among other groups and territories.

2. Methodology •  Qualitative techniques (literature and document

review) and a mixed territorial and health approach.

3. Use of bicycles at work: a healthy city action. Health benefits of using bicycles

•  Individual health benefits: obesity, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer (colon and breast), viral infections, anxiety/sleep disruptions

•  Group health benefits: air quality, noise pollution, economy of the home.

4. Bicycles, health and work: the case of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain

•  Healthy city since 2010, when it was chosen as European Green Capital .

•  Plan for Sustainable Mobility: 162.54 km cycle lanes, projects to stimulate bicycle use (CIVITAS, Naviki).

•  In 2007, 40 health-care workers travelled daily by bicycle to support home care.

5. Social networks as a conceptual framework for the spread of the use of bicycle at work

Social Networks are suitable contexts for transmitting habits.

A network is as a set of actors connected by a set of ties. The actors (often called "nodes") can be persons, teams, organizations, concepts, etc. Hence, certain social contacts might help promote a habit of mobility for instance by using a bicycle, since individuals behave in one way or another, depending on the pattern of relationships surrounding them. Considering the use of bicycle at work as an innovation, in view of the theoretical concepts in the views about the "diffusion of innovations" stated by Rogers, there are two models based on contacts within networks:

•  "Threshold model": an individual will take on a behaviour, depending on the number of people in the social network with this same behaviour.

•  “Opinion leaders”: the greatest influence to adopt an innovation is the opinion of a small number of people they trust .

6. Conclusions •  Enhancing the "healthy cities" concept through the use of means of transport that are efficient, healthy and beneficial for the

environment would aid in improving individual and collective health. •  This research puts forward the "threshold model" and the "opinion leaders" for encouraging the use of bicycles, in the belief that

these two models are capable of modifying user behavior patterns. •  This view is of great relevance in proposing strategies for health and in choosing the leaders who can serve as a model for their

fellow-citizens.

Fig. 1. Health-workers using the bicycle (left) and cycle lane in the city (right). Source: Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council web page

Paz Benito del Pozo

Department of Geography and Geology. INVESTER Research Group. University of Leon, Spain Néstor Serrano

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, United Kingdom. SALBIS Research Group. University of Leon, Spain Pilar Marqués-Sánchez

School of Health Sciences, SALBIS Research Group, University of Leon, Spain

Fig. 2. Example of a visualization of a social network. Source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40309-013-0025-2

Abstract In the context of Spanish urban areas with a strategy of "healthy city" focused on sustainable mobility, this poster presents the analysis of the experience

of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, northern Spain) with the following objectives: first, justify the use of bicycles in the workplace as a strategy for a healthy city and, secondly, to propose a conceptual framework for analyzing the characteristics of the network of professionals Vitoria-Gasteiz and its ability to spread among other groups and territories. The methodology is based on qualitative techniques (literature and document review) and a mixed territorial and health approach that seeks mainstreaming and integration of different disciplines. The results justify the use of bicycles is beneficial to the individual and collective health as well as for more efficient management of sustainable urban mobility. From the point of view of theory, the paradigm proposed is that of social networks.