A Cochrane systematic review of the effectiveness of organisational travel plans: Improving the evidence base for transport decisions

Population dependence on car use has adverse health consequences including road traffic injury, physical inactivity, air pollution and social severance. Widespread car dependence also entrenches lifestyles that require unsustainable levels of energy use. Most transport policies explicitly include goals for public health and sustainability. Transport interventions can therefore be seen as complex public health programmes, and assessing their outcomes against health and sustainability goals is vital. Using organisational travel plans (OTPs) as an example, we demonstrate how best practice epidemiological systematic reviews can be used to assess the existing evidence to inform transport policy. Such a synthesis of the evidence for OTPs has not been undertaken previously.

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