Incorporating Public Health Outcomes into the Transportation Planning and Decision-Making Process

The integration of public health outcomes into transportation planning and decision-making processes is essential to create sustainable, resilient, equitable, and healthy communities. Transportation directly impacts public health outcomes, including physical activity levels, air quality, safety, and access to everyday destinations. Everyday destinations refer to places associated with access to work, school, recreation, and food. Policies and decisions related to transportation infrastructure, land use, and the built environment can have different impacts on public health outcomes that can lead to health disparities and inequities. Historically underserved communities often bear a disproportionate burden of negative health impacts and experience few positive benefits associated with transportation investments. Evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions and successful practices for incorporating public health considerations is crucial for improving transportation planning processes. Several challenges exist in incorporating public health outcomes into the transportation planning and decision-making processes. Public health agencies and transportation agencies often operate with limited collaboration and coordination. The limited interdisciplinary cooperation poses challenges in aligning public health goals with transportation plans and policies. There is limited documented research on successful collaborative efforts and strategic partnerships between public health and transportation organizations, though the two are closely linked. While some health evaluation tools exist, there is a need for tools that can be readily integrated into transportation decision-making from concept development to post-implementation. This may include tools such as evaluation frameworks, methodologies, comprehensive data, and metrics. Transportation decision-makers need research-derived tools to help determine the public health outcomes of transportation projects, inform policies, and help prioritize proposed projects. The objective of this research is to develop a guide that details how to (1) integrate public health outcomes into transportation decision-making and resource allocation; and (2) assess positive public health outcomes related to physical activity, mobility options, and access to everyday destinations. The guide shall include an evaluation framework and metrics and be accompanied by a spreadsheet tool.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5692
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $450,000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-135

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Crichton-Sumners, Camille

• Start Date: 20241223
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Cooperation; Decision making; Land use planning; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Public health; Social factors; State departments of transportation; Transportation planning
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01919360
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-135
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 22 2024 2:34PM