How To Live Longer – Ditch the Car, Go By Train

The news that citizens of the UK come 12th on a list of 19 countries for life expectancy at birth means that Brits can expect to have shorter lives than people in many other countries – like Spain, Italy and Australia. A lot of commentary has blamed the NHS, but, as Prof John Newton, chief knowledge officer of Public Health England, which assumes its responsibilities on 1 April said, "I'd be very surprised if it was the healthcare factors that are making the difference….It is more to do with a culture of supportive communities, people's lifestyles and their diets."

The Guardian has published a list of ten ways to live longer – and Number 9 is Take The Train. As the Guardian notes, “Road injuries were the 12^th highest cause of years of life lost in the UK in 2010, but if you take just adults aged 20 to 54, they were fifth – after heart disease, self-harm, cirrhosis and breast cancer, and just above drug use. According to the independent Oxford healthcare journal Bandolier, which used 2006-7 data from sources including the World Health Organisation and the Department for Transport, the lifetime risk of dying before the age of 75 are one in 976 in a car, one in 54,433 on a plane and one in 131,313 in a train.”
This will not be news to students of behavioural economics, who know that we humans are incredibly bad at risk assessment, particularly when it comes to everyday activities – which, for many people, includes getting in the car. Another great reason not to…