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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

GR2_3_2: Symposium: Advancing active transport: changing norms, improving skills, assessing economic effects and exploring commercial determinants.
Location: Glass room 2
Session Chair: Antonina Tcymbal

Presentation 1

11:25am - 11:35am

Advancing active transport: changing norms, improving skills, assessing economic effects and exploring commercial determinants.

Chair(s): Antonina Tcymbal (Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany); Josef Mitáš (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic)

Active transport plays an important role in supporting population health and environmental sustainability. Despite strong evidence supporting positive effects of walking and cycling, uptake remains insufficient in many countries. Addressing this gap requires multi-level approaches that shift social norms, strengthen individual competencies, assess economic impacts, and critically examine systemic barriers. This symposium brings together interdisciplinary perspectives to advance the science and practice of active mobility promotion.

The first presentation describes an intervention in professional football settings demonstrates how leveraging fan communities and normative messaging can promote active mobility behaviours. The study examines whether social norms communicated through professional clubs can influence transport choices among fans.

The second presentation shows evaluation of results from Bikepool, a school-based cycling programme in Germany. The programme aims to improve students’ cycling competence, safety awareness, and confidence. Findings provide insights into behavioural outcomes and implementation challenges in school settings.

In third presentation, experiences from 10 years of applying the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling are discussed. Developed by the World Health Organization, HEAT quantifies the economic value of reduced mortality resulting from regular walking and cycling. Practical applications and challenges for a wider uptake of the tool will be discussed.

The fourth contribution introduces commercial determinants as a novel perspective to better understand structural barriers and enablers of active travel. This presentation examines how commercial actors and market interests shape mobility environments, policies, and social norms, and discusses implications for promoting healthier and more sustainable transport systems.

Overall, the symposium highlights how combining behavioural, educational, economic, and structural perspectives can support more effective and sustainable strategies for advancing active transport. It will provide a unique interdisciplinary perspective by integrating behavioural science, programme evaluation, health economics, and political economy approaches to active transport promotion. By presenting findings from diverse contexts, including sport settings, schools, and policy evaluation, it provides both empirical insights and conceptual advances for understanding how active mobility can be effectively promoted.

Presentations of the Symposium

Can Social Norms Move Fans? Evidence From an Active Mobility Intervention in Professional Football

Valentina Kroker¹; Siegfried Dewitte²; Filip Boen³
1: 1 Behavioural Economics and Engineering, KU Leuven, 2 Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven; 2: Behavioural Economics and Engineering, KU Leuven; 3: Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven

Purpose

Fan-mobility is a significant contributor to the total CO₂ emissions of professional sports events, including those of the OH-Leuven football club. In 2022, 66.1% of the club’s home‑game emissions stemmed from transportation³. Since then, OH-Leuven has invested in fans’ active and sustainable mobility.

Method

In previous years, we have collaborated with the club to survey various fan behaviours, with a focus on active mobility. In the ongoing 2025/2026 season, we are following a sample of seasonal ticket holders for the entire season. Preliminary analyses show that 460 fans completed the baseline questionnaire and expressed willingness to participate in the longitudinal study.

Results & Conclusion

In the 2024/2025 season, 50.4% fans’ main method of transport to the stadium was active. Comparatively, in the ongoing 2025/2026 season, 68.5% reported using active transport at least occasionally. After each home game, we assess their mobility choices and in-stadium consumption in a short questionnaire.

This ongoing project aims to identify effective strategies to increase active mobility to the stadium. To test whether OH-Leuven relevant simple normative cues can shift behaviour, participants of the longitudinal study were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (statements): an injunctive norm, a descriptive norm, or a control. During one specific post-game questionnaire, these statements were presented.

The results of this intervention and how this can promote active fan mobility in professional sports will be discussed.

Funding:

Interreg North Sea Region project Active Cities (Active Cities Active Cities | Interreg North Sea), which was co-funded by the European Union.

Bikepool – evaluation results of a school-based cycling programme aiming to improve students’ cycling competence

Karim Abu-Omar; Heiko Ziemainz; Johannes Brandl
Department of Sport Science and Sport, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany

Purpose: School-based cycling interventions may promote safe and equitable active transport among children and adolescents. This study evaluates the effectiveness of bikepool, a large-scale practice-based cycling programme implemented in German secondary schools. The study examines changes in cycling competence using a standardised skills test, and explores associations with cycling behaviour.

Methods: A quasi-experimental pre–post design was conducted in participating schools (n = 182 students, grades 6–10). Cycling competence was assessed using a newly developed practical test. Subgroup analyses examined intervention effects across baseline performance levels. Questionnaires assessed students' attitudes towards cycling in an intervention group (n = 109) and a control group (n = 112).

Results: Students demonstrated significant improvements in cycling competence across 9 out of 11 tasks (p < .001). The largest absolute gains were observed among students with very low baseline competence, indicating potential reductions in skill disparities. Self-report data revealed no increase in cycling frequency.

Conclusions: As a large-scale, school-based programme, bikepool can effectively improve students' saftety-related cycling competence and contribute to reducing skill-related inequalities in active mobility participation. Findings highlight the multifactorial nature of cycling and the need for comprehensive promotion strategies beyond competence development.

Funding Source: Funding was provided by the non-profit association bikepool Hessen e.V. Bikepool is financially supported by the AOK Statutory Sickness Fund of Hesse, Germany.

The Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling - experiences from 10 years of application of health impact assessment in policy and practice

Sonja Kahlmeier¹; Nick Cavil²; Meelan Thondoo³; Harry Rutter⁴; Thiago Herick de Sa⁵; Francesca Racioppi⁶; Thomas Gotschi⁷
1: City Health, Pfäffikon, Switzerland; 2: Cavill Associates Ltd Bramhall, Stockport, United Kingdom; 3: Global Diet and Physical Activity Research Group, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; 4: Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom.; 5: Healthy Urban Environments, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; 6: European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany; 7: College of Design, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States Of America

Background and aim of the study
Walking and cycling have moved into the focus as promising approaches to achieve public health, sustainable transport, climate goals and better urban resilience. However, they are only realistic transport and activity options for a large proportion of the population when they are safe, inclusive and convenient. One way to increase their recognition in transport policy is the inclusion of health impacts of walking and cycling into transport economic appraisals.
Methods:
The Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling calculates: if x people walk or cycle a distance of y on most days, what is the economic value of impacts on premature mortality, taking into account physical activity, air pollution and road fatalities, as well as carbon emissions. Different data sources were collated to examine how the HEAT was used in more than 10 years of existence, and to identify lessons learned and challenges.
Results
Since its launch in 2009, the HEAT has gained wide recognition as a user friendly, yet robust, evidence-based tool usable by academics, policymakers, and practitioners. Originally designed for use in Europe, it has since been expanded for global use.

Conclusions:
Challenges for a wider uptake of health-impact assessment tools including active transport such as HEAT are the promotion and dissemination to local practitioners and policy makers also outside European and English-speaking regions and in low- and middle-income contexts, further increasing usability, and more generally the advancement of systematic data collection and impact quantification related to walking and cycling.

Commercial determinants as a novel perspective to understand barriers and enablers of active travel

Jens Buksch¹; Karim Abu-Omar²; Dorothea Baltruks³; Adrian Bauman⁴; Ding Ding⁴; Sonja Kahlmeier⁵; Lisa Paulsen¹; Lydia Reismann⁶; Birgit Wallmann-Sperlich⁷; Carmen Jochem⁶
1: Department of Prevention and Health Promotion, Heidelberg University of Education, Heidelberg, Germany; 2: Department of Sport Science and Sport, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany; 3: Centre for Planetary Health Policy (CPHP), German Alliance on Climate Change and Health, Berlin, Germany; 4: School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; 5: City Health, Zurich, Switzerland; 6: Department of Planetary & Public Health, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany; 7: Integrative and Experimental Exercise Science and Training, Institute for Sports Science, Faculty of Human Science, Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

Purpose: Although active travel improves physical and mental health, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and offers social and economic benefits, the pace of action to promote active travel is not reasonable. Understanding its determinants is important to guide effective interventions. Commercial determinants are important yet overlooked. While growing evidence suggests the role of commercial actors in shaping health behaviours, their impact on active travel has rarely been considered. We aim to advance the discourse on the commercial determinants of active travel by outlining positive and negative examples as well as practical approaches.

Methods: Commercial determinants of active travel describe the influence of economic interests on encouraging and discouraging active mobility choices. Commercial determinants of active travel operate through systemic influences on urban and transportation planning, corporate interests, public discourse and policy making. Through strategic scanning of recent relevant literature, we developed a preliminary framework of key commercial strategies and approaches.

Results: We will present a range of counter-marketing strategies (e.g., political lobbying, promotion, advocacy and advertising, suppression of alternatives) to influence active travel and give positive (e.g. bicycle or walking coalitions lobbying) and negative examples (e.g. car industry lobbying for road expansion or reduced fuel taxes) for each strategy.

Conclusion: Recognizing, and addressing commercial determinants of active travel is essential for improving population and planetary health. Future work should include accountability frameworks, honing of more forceful advocacy, and allocation of considerable funding for policy-oriented research to better understand and effectively engage decision-makers and practitioners in promoting active travel.