Transportation Health Tool: A new tool to inform policy decisions and promote Health in All Policies

Everyone benefits from using roadways, streets, sidewalks, trails and public transit for everyday needs, whether for traveling to and from work, school and play or accessing basic necessities, such as health services and grocery stores. At the same time, too many people are negatively impacted by our transportation systems, from increased air pollution to a lack of safe places to walk, bike and engage in physical activity without unnecessary risk. For a long time, public health impacts and benefits were too often overlooked in transportation policy, program and funding decisions. That has begun to change. Many state officials and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have begun including public health goals and health criteria in transportation planning and policies as well as within the transportation project selection process. And the public health community has begun to partner with the transportation sector to integrate health considerations in transportation work.

In support of Health in All Policies and the National Prevention Strategy, in 2012 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to create a simple-to-use transportation and health tool (THT). THT helps public health and transportation decision-makers analyze the intersection of health and transportation in their community, and invest in efforts that will have a lasting impact on health. THT gives users a picture of how their community compares to others in terms of key health and transportation indicators. It also informs health-supportive state and regional transportation policies and project decisions, while strengthening collaborations between transportation and public health sectors. For this session the tool, which was just released, will be discussed and demonstrated.