Emerging Data-Driven Evidence for Health, Well-Being, and Equity Outcomes from Active Mobility in Cities

Active mobility, including walking, cycling, and micromobility, offers proven health and environmental benefits in urban spaces. This Research Topic focuses on quantitative, modelcentric, and causal approaches that estimate the health and well-being impacts of active mobility. While a growing body of research links active modes to increased physical activity and reduced diverse health risks, less is understood about the underlying mechanisms and pathways through which built environments, macro-micro policy interventions, social inequities, and daily mobility patterns shape broader health and well-being outcomes. Recent advances in big urban mobility data, integrated health exposure assessment, and sophisticated modeling techniques are beginning to address these gaps, but more quantitative research is still needed to inform high impact policy and practice. As cities worldwide aim at improving the health and well-being of residents, understanding the real-world impact of active travel and its underlying mechanisms on urban health is more critical than ever. Notably, robust evidence is needed to foster transformative changes in current urban and transport policies that support active travel and behavioral change at scale.This Research Topic aims to accelerate robust evidence on how interventions and daily use of pedestrian, cycling, and micromobility modes affect health, well-being, and equity in cities. We seek submissions that use mobility data (e.g., GPS, sensor networks, shared-mobility system data, wearables) with epidemiological, exposure, and health economic models, and analyses that clarify the mechanisms linking interventions to specific health and well-being outcomes. The objective is to support urban planners, public health officials, and policymakers with credible estimates, including assessments of uncertainty and distributional impacts so that active mobility interventions can achieve their full potential.The scope encompasses research that employs robust modeling and causal designs to quantify the health effects of active mobility in urban settings. To gather further insights in this area, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Agent-based, activity-based, or microsimulation models of mode shift and health outcomes• Integrated exposure modeling along routes for pedestrians, cyclists, and micromobilityusers (air, noise, heat)• Causal inference designs tied to interventions (e.g., difference-in-differences, synthetic controls, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, natural experiments)• Safety pathway modeling, including crash/near-miss risk, infrastructure trade-offs, andspeed management• Health economic evaluation embedded in modeled scenarios (cost-effectiveness,DALYs/QALYs, burden estimates)• Equity-aware models that examine heterogeneous effects by neighborhood deprivation, age, gender, disability, or trip necessity• Model validation, uncertainty quantification, transferability, and reproducible modelingworkflowsWe welcome rigorous study designs such as natural experiments, longitudinal analyses, health economic evaluations, HIA, and implementation research to strengthen causal inference and practical impact in this field. Submissions may include original research, systematic or scoping reviews, meta-analyses, and rigorous methodological innovations. Innovative methods and interdisciplinary approaches that bridge public health with urban planning, transportation, or environmental science are highly encouraged. Topic editors: Hossain Mohiuddin, Shaila Jamal, S.M. Labib Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79105/emerging-data-driven-evidence-for-health-well-being-and-equity-outcomes-from-active-mobility-in-cities