Abstract

Introduction: Modern transportation makes a significant impact on human health in multiple ways – air and noise pollution, road traffic accidents and being a major contributor to global warming. The resultant health impacts range from mild irritability to cardiovascular disorders and cancer, but ‘are we aware and ready to act for the same’! Objectives: To document knowledge, attitude and practices regarding urban transportation and its impact on health among youth. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted on conveniently selected medical and paramedical students of Gujarat, through snowball sampling. Data collected through Google form; analysis done in Excel. Results: A total of 201 students (mean age 20.2± 2.96 years) participated in the study. Majority of the students (83.6%) believed that urban transportation affects human health, air pollution being most worrisome (76.9%). Almost all believed in the adverse impact of noise on mental health and sleep with 96% considering road traffic as the major cause of community noise. Only 27.7% were using public transport for frequent commute. Nearly half of the students owned a vehicle, two-wheeler being the commonest (74.31%). A total of 91% responded affirmatively on contributing towards climate change mitigation with 34.7% having the opinion that their personal efforts in curtailing climate change will not make any difference. Conclusion: Despite of good knowledge improvement in practice and attitude is needed, like the mode of commute, owning a vehicle, irregularity in getting their vehicles serviced and also the importance of individual efforts in dealing with the burning issues of global warming.

Keywords

Urban transportation, health, air pollution, noise pollution, climate change