209165 Transportation and health: The evidence and the opportunities

Wednesday, November 11, 2009: 10:30 AM

Todd Litman, MS , Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Victoria, BC, Canada
Transportation planning decisions affect public health in various ways, including rates of traffic casualties, pollution exposure, physical activity and fitness, mental health, and access to medical services. Conventional transportation planning often overlooks or undervalues these impacts –and thus poorly considers health in transport planning.

One solution is improving public transportation service quality, encouraging public transport use, and integrating public transport into community development can support public health objectives, directly by reducing automobile travel, stimulating walking and cycling activity, and improving mobility for disadvantaged people; and indirectly by creating more accessible, multi-modal communities where people drive less and rely more on alternative modes. Encouraging non-motorized transportation and more comprehensive multi-modal planning is an important complimentary strategy.

This is a timely issue because transportation planning is undergoing a paradigm shift: a change in the way problems are defined and solutions evaluated. During the last century automobile travel grew, while the quality and use of walking, cycling and public transportation declined in many cities. With the upcoming reauthorization of the federal surface transportation bill, the opportunity to build on this paradigm shift to incorporate the consideration of health is vast.

This presentation discusses the relationships between mobility (the amount and way that people travel) and various public health factors including crash risk, physical activity and fitness, pollution exposure, mental health, affordability, and access to medical services. It discusses how health impacts can be incorporated into transportation policy and planning practices, and specific policy reforms that can help support public health objectives.

Learning Objectives:
- List a minimum of five ways transportation planning and policies impact health outcomes. - Articulate the imperative for health involvement in transportation policy. - Identify specific strategies to create healthier transportation policy. - Describe the surface transportation reauthorization bill and how it relates to health.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Environmental Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Executive Director of Victoria Transport Policy Institute Written over 30 publications on transportation. Author of Public Transit and Health commissioned by the Healthy Eating, Active Living Convergence Partnership (not yet published).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.