Impacts
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There is a deep and evolving knowledge base about the links between transportation and health. Research shows that when properly designed, transportation systems can provide exercise Opportunities, improve safety, lower emotional stress, link poor people to opportunity, connect isolated older adults and people with disabilities to crucial services and social supports, and stimulate economic development. Conventional auto mobility-focused planning by local, regional, and state transportation agencies generally overlooks or undervalues the impacts of transportation investments on health and equity. This chapter, from the book Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research, provides an overview of the impacts of transportation on health. Subsequent chapters on transportation options and key issues provide further detail.Leading experts and researchers at the crossroads of health and transportation have compiled the latest and most compelling research on the connections between the two issues. Through papers and presentations, they provide insight and analysis of the impacts of transportation on health, and identify solutions to create healthier transportation policies.
Public Transit Improving public transportation service, encouraging its use, and integrating it into community development plans can make Americans healthier by reducing per capita automobile travel and associated risks, increasing walking and cycling activity,and improving mobility for disadvantaged people. Conventional transportation policies and planning practices tend to favor the automobile. Various reforms can help create more efficient and equitable transportation systems that, among other benefits, help improve public health.
Roadways
Walking and Biking Transportation Walking and bicycling are efficient modes of travel and effective forms of exercise. Starting with the passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991, the federal government has provided various forms of financial support for non-motorized transportation, but increasing walking and bicycling without increasing fatalities and injuries requires more than the limited federal resources to date. State, regional, and local policies determine the extent to which communities capitalize on the federal programs to expand walking and bicycling and help close the gap in health disparities between low-income communities and their more affluent neighbors.
Economic Development and Transportation Transportation policy in the United States has historically emphasized automobile use and steered land use, development, and investments in infrastructure toward low-density suburbs. This approach has left low-income communities in aging city centers poorer, sicker, and increasingly immobile, unable—more and more—to get to work, their doctor,parks, gyms, or even grocery stores that sell fresh, healthy food. This paper explores an alternative transportation policy designed to create healthy, productive metro regions by closing the gap between affluent, mobile communities and their less mobile, disadvantaged neighbors.By reconfiguring how we use available land, we can create densely populated, mixed-use communities that expand access to transportation and improve health outcomes. With a focus on equity, these policies can also support economic development that reduces poverty and economic and racial segregation.
By Dr. Kami Pothukuchi Associate Professor of Urban Planning College of and By Richard Wallace Senior Project Manager Center for Automotive Research
Global agri-food and transportation systems have dramatically expanded food production and distribution worldwide. This integration, however, also adversely affects human health. The negative effects arise from unequal access to healthy food, unequal access to transportation for agri-food workers, increasing geospatial and economic concentration in the agri-food industry, and an emerging competition between food and fuel. Because the health of individuals is inextricably tied to the health of communities, regions, and ecological systems, health and transportation professionals need to act to both mitigate current disparities and enhance the future viability and sustainability of these systems.
Injury Prevention Traffic injuries and deaths exact a huge toll on our finances, our families, and our future. There are opportunities in the upcoming authorization of a new federal transportation bill to promote safety for all travelers. More broadly, safety for all travelers must become a national health and transportation priority. Advocates for injury prevention should collaborate with public health experts (specialists in chronic disease prevention, for example) and partners in other sectors (such as economic development) to promote a broad vision for health and equity in transportation policy.
By Dr. Jean Ospital Asthma, cardiovascular disease, abnormal lung growth, cancer and low birth-weight have all been attributed to auto and truck emissions. Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, with nearly one in seven children being affected across the nation. Asthma impacts children of color disproportionately. In Puerto Rico, the asthma prevalence rate in children is 19%, 13% in blacks and 8% in White children. Studies show that children living near busy roadways are more likely than children living near less trafficked roads to have asthma, to have deficits in lung function and to need to visit the doctor for their asthma. Nearly half (46%) of the U.S. population lives in counties that have poor air quality. Urban sprawl has dramatically impacted air quality as residential developments expand farther away from urban economic centers. Dependence on cars and the number of miles traveled have significantly increased as the distance between work, home and goods and services have grown -without attention to public transportation options. This increased dependence on cars is a major factor in air pollution. In addition, as globalization and the movement of goods has grown, so has truck traffic from ports to distribution centers. Unfortunately, low-income communities and communities of color frequently bear the burden of pollution generated by the increasing goods movement infrastructure –such as heavily trafficked and expanding highways, bridges, railyards, airports and ports. Improving air quality through transportation not only directly improves health outcomes, it improves the natural environment and slows down global climate change. Transportation options impact the level of physical activity an individual obtains. Active forms of transportation, such as walking and biking, promote health. Transportation infrastructure that supports physical activity includes sidewalks, bike lanes, and design and land use features which create a safe and supportive atmosphere for active transport. Public transportation also helps promote a more physically active lifestyle. A study in Atlanta found that for every additional hour spent in a car, the risk of obesity rose 6%. The very opposite is true for public transportation riders. Nearly 30% of transit riders get the recommended daily dose of physical activity (30 minutes of moderate physical activity) by walking to and from transit. Overall transit riders spend an average of 19 minutes of physical activity through their daily routine. Physical inactivity contributes to obesity, one of the biggest risk factors for type II diabetes –the fifth most common cause of death for Americans. Overweight and obesity are also risk factors in a number of other poor health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and arthritis. Black, Latino, and low-income persons are disproportionately impacted by the obesity epidemic. |