The health and socioeconomic impacts of free transportation initiatives: A scoping review

Free access to transportation is essential for maintaining excellent health and achieving socioeconomic stability. However, obstacles continue to exist, especially for marginalized and vulnerable groups. This scoping review made use of the approach developed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) to comprehensively investigate the impacts of free transportation initiatives on health and socioeconomic outcomes. We conducted a comprehensive search in four prominent databases— MEDLINE, PUBMED, PsycINFO and Web of Science—resulting in the identification of 8745 articles. After removing 1236 duplicate articles and title and abstract screening, we evaluated 54 full-text articles to determine if they met the criteria for inclusion. Finally, we selected 28 papers to include in our analysis. Most research on the impacts of free transportation programs were from USA (4), United Kingdom (15), Canada (3), Australia (1), South Korea (1), Estonia (1), Taiwan (1), Finland (1) and Ethiopia (1). The findings showed multiple impacts of free transportation programs ranging from its benefits in enhancing accessibility to healthcare services, improving physical activity, and improvements in overall health outcomes such as obesity, depression, and cardiovascular diseases. The socioeconomic impacts include improved opportunities for employment, better access to educational opportunities, improved social inclusion, increased engagement in community activities, economic advancement, and better access to essential services. The positive impacts of these initiatives often benefit equity seeking groups. This scoping review demonstrates how free transportation initiatives can effectively reduce health inequities and enhance wellbeing. It also provides evidence of the need for continued research and policy approaches to improving the planning and implementation of free transportation projects for improving wellbeing. • Free transportation improves physical activity and reduces stress. • Free transportation schemes are more beneficial for vulnerable groups such as women and ethnic minorities. • Free transportation schemes improve access to key resources and enable social participation. • Free transportation schemes can be scaled up at the national level leading to improved mobility and reduced congestion.