Megan & Eloisa,
In preparing a DOT presentation on Transportation and Health at a panel about social determinants of health and health disparities at NIH for Nation Minority Health Month, I sketched an outline that I think could be informative to planning
next year:
Transportation’s impact on health
·
Transportation availability & access to care
·
Transportation options & livable communities
·
Transportation planning & environmental justice
As I mentioned back at the annual meeting, there is nowhere near enough research being done on bullet #1, while nos 2&3 get covered by a lot of disciplines. This subcommittee can help fill that gap. There is a need to look not only
at “transportation decisions” which imply planning of projects & future impacts, but
transportation use and availability and their impact on individual health outcomes. Arguably, transportation has a much larger impact on health when considered in the immediate term and on an individual scale.
To use two specific examples: certainly planning decisions can have large future aggregate impacts on air quality and respiratory health as a result – but how many people in the past year have ended up in emergency care, or, sadly, died
because they were unable to get to a preventive appointment like dialysis or other chronic disease treatment? That’s a much more immediate and measurable impact, yet no one can really say for sure. That’s where, in my opinion, this committee has the biggest
opportunity to contribute.
I think TCRP made a good foray into this area with
B-27 “Cost Benefit Analysis of Providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation,” but this was really only a beginning, and happened 7 years ago now.
I would argue that the Public Health sector is pretty strongly engaged in the transportation discussion and it’s time now to engage more people in the Health Care & Services sectors. In the long term, I think, that engagement will have
benefits for all of the other questions the subcommittee considers. As hospitals, insurance companies, and other care providers better understand the direct impact of transportation on their missions and their bottom lines, the more they will support transportation
options and better transportation planning. I mean how many hospitals are built today to enable, much less encourage, walking to and from? I sure haven’t seen one recently. To what extent to providers consider transportation access (beyond driving & parking
garages) when placing and planning new facilities? These are all very important issues which are not being researched.
I hope you will consider this broadening of scope for next year’s workshop.
-Erik
Erik Weber
United We Ride -- Office of Program Management
Federal Transit Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE, E44-431
Washington, DC 20590
Ph: 202.366.0705
On the Web:
Follow the United We Ride National Resource Center:
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@FTA_DOT
P
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-----Original Message-----
From: h+t--friends-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:h+t--friends-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Megan Wier
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 7:28 PM
To: h+t--friends@ryoko.chrispy.net
Subject: [H+T--Friends] Help inform our Subcommittee's TRB 2013 Workshop Proposal!
Help inform our Subcommittee's TRB 2013 Workshop Proposal!
The Health & Transportation Subcommittee is proposing a half-day workshop for the January 2013 TRB Annual Meeting - and we are looking to our friends for help generating ideas regarding its focus.
As many of you know, at the 2012 TRB Annual Meeting there was a full-day workshop entitled "Intersection of Health and Transportation: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and How We Can Better Integrate Health Considerations into Transportation
Decisions." More information regarding this workshop is available at the following link:
http://pressamp.trb.org/conferenceinteractiveprogram/EventDetails.aspx?ID=22489
.
The workshop was a great success - and generated a lot of ideas regarding research needs at the intersection of health and transportation - many of which are summarized here:
http://www.trbhealth.org/research/research-needs.
Examples include:
- Effects of travel and travel environments on social cohesion
- Parking policy as a mechanism for increasing physical activity
- Access needs of different populations
- Road safety disparities
- Health effects of new and improved infrastructure networks for active transportation modes (e.g., bike ways, sidewalks, trails)
- Local impacts of freight movement
- Health-related indicators in transportation planning
- Creating partnerships between transportation and other health-related sectors
As the Subcommittee moves forward with its work, what topics (listed at the above link - OR new ideas that you may have) do you think warrant a deeper exploration and discussion at the upcoming meeting? Are there particular areas or
speakers that you think would help the subcommittee to advance research, education, and professional practice in health and transportation?
***Please email Eloisa Raynault (eloisa.raynault@apha.org) and Megan Wier
(megan.wier@sfdph.org) with your thoughts and ideas by Friday, May 4th,
2012.***
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