Active travel (walking and cycling) is increasingly being recognised as a potentially effective means of increasing physical activity levels and thereby contribute to physical and mental health. Research related to active travel typically either focuses on the determinants of active travel or its health effects. As far as the authors are aware, no studies have tried to include both sets of variables in a single empirical model. The goal of this study is to address this gap by developing and estimating a structural equation model including both spatial determinants of active travel and relevant physical and mental health outcomes. The model is estimated using aggregated data from all Dutch municipalities, 355 in total. The results indicate that the walking and cycling modal shares are consistently negatively associated with the prevalence of obesity and diabetes and positively correlated with overall physical activity. The effects are similar in size as those of sport participation. The results provide insights as to which spatial characteristics municipalities should focus on if their aim is to increase public health via active travel.

积极的旅行（步行和骑自行车）越来越被认为是提高身体活动水平的潜在有效手段，从而有助于身心健康。与积极旅行相关的研究通常要么关注积极旅行的决定因素，要么关注其对健康的影响。据作者所知，没有研究试图将两组变量都包含在一个单一的经验模型中。本研究的目的是通过开发和估计一个结构方程模型来解决这一差距，该模型包括主动旅行的空间决定因素和相关的身心健康结果。该模型使用来自荷兰所有城市的汇总数据进行估计，总共 355 个。结果表明，步行和骑自行车的模式份额始终与肥胖和糖尿病的患病率呈负相关，与整体身体活动呈正相关。影响的大小与体育参与的影响相似。如果他们的目标是通过积极的旅行来增加公共健康，那么这些结果提供了关于市政当局应该关注哪些空间特征的见解。