Online Program

Oral

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. The National Prevention Strategy encourages health in all policies for transportation and community infrastructure to create healthy and safe community environments. Many state officials and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have begun to include public health goals, health criteria and the public health community in their transportation plans and programs. In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) partnered on the development of a simple-to-use transportation and health tool (THT) that allows transportation officials and policy-makers to understand how their community or state compares to their peers in terms of key health and transportation indicators. The tool uses several transportation and health indicators to show how a specific area is doing is terms of its intersection between health and transportation. For this session the tool, which was just released, will be discussed and demonstrated.

Session Objectives: Describe what the Transportation and Health Tool is, how it was developed, and how to apply health and transportation indicators to local decisions. Identify how their areas compare to others on the various health and transportation indicators. Compare and assess an area’s performance on several health and transportation indicators using the Transportation and Health Tool.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)