272574 Targeting resources to support safe walking environments in all communities

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 3:21 PM - 3:33 PM

Megan Wier, MPH , San Francisco Department of Public Health, Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability, San Francisco, CA
Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH , Occupational and Environmental Health, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA
     
Walking is an essential human activity needed for access to daily needs. In a sustainable city, walking should be safe for all residents. Unfortunately, in many parts of the country, walking can be more dangerous than driving. In San Francisco in recent years, on average, cars and other motor vehicles have killed approximately 20 pedestrians and have injured 800 people walking on the streets annually. Half of fatal injuries in motor vehicle collisions in San Francisco are suffered by walkers. Low-income communities in San Francisco are more heavily burdened with pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Careful design of roads and enforcement of traffic safety laws can prevent serious and fatal pedestrian injuries.

In response to this public health problem, in December 2010 then Mayor Gavin Newsom - working with with representatives from health and transportation departments and a local pedestrian advocacy organization - established a city goal of reducing serious and fatal pedestrian injuries by 50% by 2021 and directed City agencies to coordinate the development of a pedestrian action plan towards this end. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has since been co-leading this effort along with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

This presentation will highlight recent SFDPH leadership of a Citywide Pedestrian Safety Task Force to develop the plan to address the injury reduction targets. Illustrating the working principles detailed in the introduction to this full session, this presentation will describe: SFDPH collaboration with local transportation agencies, the police department, and community organizations; efforts to improve data available to assess and address pedestrian injury; innovative analysis methods applied to inform targeted engineering and enforcement measures, address equity concerns, and focus resources on high-injury corridors; and changes in City plans, policies, and resource distribution resulting from this initiative.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe how local public health analysis and collaboration with transportation agencies, the police department, and community-based organizations can inform change in City policy and targeted engineering and enforcement measures to improve pedestrian safety.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an Epidemiologist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health who has been helping lead local public health and inter-agency efforts to prevent pedestrian injuries and improve health-related transportation conditions. I have been the co-principal investigator of a RWJF Active Living Research program grant, and have authored three peer-reviewed papers published in academic journals on health and transportation-related topics in addition to numerous other presentations and reports for local to national audiences.
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.

Back to: 4300.0: Local environmental health action for environmental and social justice: Lessons from the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability