Nice to see, be sure to read Todd Litman's excellent response.

I agree with Todd that the title is overstated; the article is asking us to question whether confounding factors are also important, perhaps separate from transportation (and land use) behaviour/characteristics, which was not to say transportation factors have no effect. I also agree with Todd that a county-level analysis misses the variations in land use (and other factors) that occur within counties. This is great for a regional view, but not for a total analysis.

The authors suggest such confounding factors as:


I would counter, for one, that we consider car culture to be larger than just the modal split. Would people eat at drive-through restaurants if they could conveniently and comfortably walk food sources? Would people shuttle children as much if those destinations were more available by other means?  Please don't take my statements as comprehensive, I know this is very broad and I too just ask us to think more broadly.

In terms of analysis by gender, Marsha, the did not look at gendered factors, although the bio of one of the two authors, Anne Price, states that her "teaching and research specializations are in cross-national sociology and methodology, with a particular focus on women’s health and status".

The article looked at county-level data to get a visual idea of large scale regional differences. I don't know if the ratio of males to females varies much across the country in that way. Other gendered behaviors certainly could; who does the shopping and driving of children, for instance? Is that more common in the "Bible Belt" than New England, for instance? The article and the topic as a whole invites a great deal of inquiry.

Jason Meggs

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On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 5:39 PM, Anderson Bomar, Marsha <Marsha.AndersonBomar@stantec.com> wrote:
> This is very interesting.. is there any analysis by gender?  Thanks Marsha  (co-Chair for ABE70, Women's Issues in Transportation)
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: h+t--friends-bounces@ryoko.chrispy.net [mailto:h+t--friends-bounces@ryoko.chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Ed Christopher
> Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 10:08 AM
> To: h+t--friends@ryoko.chrispy.net
> Subject: [H+T--Friends] More on Car Travel and Health
>
> What is the relationship between car travel and health outcomes in the United States? Ariel Godwin and Anne Price challenge the claim that more time in the car decreases your health by looking at the impacts of education, income, and employment rates.
> http://www.planetizen.com/node/53728
>
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