Stuck With the Car and All its Harms? A Public Health Approach to the Political Economy of the Status Quo

Abstract

Despite the importance of a transition from car use to more active and public transport and an adequate knowledge base for taking action, the pace and scale of change globally has been inadequate to protect health, particularly from the effects of climate change. While the active transport research agenda has rightly broadened beyond behaviour change to include wider physical environments (infrastructure), in most jurisdictions this has not translated into major shifts in investment. We argue that the politics and macroeconomics of the status quo of automobility act as major barriers to mode shift and remain under-researched. Building on previous political economy and public health research and using Aotearoa New Zealand as a case study we tease out the mechanisms by which the politics and economics of the status quo affect what is experienced on the ground. From there, we suggest a research agenda that could be used to increase our understanding globally of the barriers to active travel transitions. We propose that the time is ripe for this action-focused research, but also for immediate action building on lessons learnt from public health’s history with addressing barriers to healthy public policy, such as reducing tobacco harm.