Once more, in English, please

One of the paragraphs in a recent BMJ article, "Promoting walking and cycling as an alternative to using cars: systematic review," by David Ogilvie and others, about the ecological and health advantages of walking or biking, stated:

“Ecological comparisons show that the proportion of walking and cycling journeys can vary between populations, both between and within countries, by an order of magnitude greater than the population effect size of any intervention included in this review. It may be unrealistic to expect interventions to produce substantial effects in relatively inactive populations without addressing the other, potentially complex reasons for such variations, such as attitudes towards cars and bicycles. Combining interventions in a genuinely integrated urban transport policy might be more effective, but we currently lack evidence from intervention studies to support this assertion. “

In turn, reader Michael McGrath of Australia writes:

“As an ardent cyclist I was keenly interested in reading your paper. Unfortunately the language style is so impenetrable that I’m not confident I understand your conclusions.

I refer you to a guide [plain english foundation.com] on how to write reports that ordinary people can easily read and clearly understand.”

I love it.