Transportation and Health Resources

The Healthy Community Design Initiative, also known as the Built Environment and Health Initiative, is no longer a funded program and the information on this website is not being reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

Transportation and Health Planning

CDC/DOT Transportation and Health Tool
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/healthtopics/transportation/tool.htm

The tool gives transportation decision-makers, health officials, and the public easy access to data to understand the health impact of an existing transportation system or proposed transportation project.

National Prevention Strategy
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ initiatives/prevention/strategy/report.pdf

Developed by the Office of the Surgeon General, the National Prevention Strategy provides a plan to promote health and wellness in the U.S. population. Under its strategic direction to promote healthy and safe community environments, the Strategy lists promotion of Active Living as a priority, including improved access to sidewalks, bicycle routes, and public transportation.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Best Practices for Reducing Near-Road Air Pollution Exposures at Schools. Washington(DC): USEPA; 2015.

The report summarizes several strategies that can be used by schools including ventilation, filtration, voluntary building occupant actions, school transportation policies, school siting and site layout decisions, and the use of sound walls and vegetative barriers.

National Physical Activity Plan
http://www.physicalactivityplan.or g/NationalPhysicalActivityPlan.pdf

The 2010 Plan includes strategies and tactics on how transportation can help Americans achieve recommended levels of physical activity while lowering air pollution rates and increasing access to essential destinations like grocery stores, schools, jobs, and health services. A Board of Directors representing national organizations at the forefront of physical activity and public health, including CDC, led the development of the Plan.

Federal Highway Administration. Metropolitan transportation planning for healthy communities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation; 2012. Available at URL: http://www.planning.dot.gov/doc uments/Volpe_FHWA_MPOHealth_12122012.pdf

The purpose of this white paper is to identify an integrated and flexible approach to how metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and their partners can successfully consider aspects of health during the transportation planning process. The report also includes summaries of federal and state regulations, policies, and funding programs that provide the foundation or context for MPOs nationwide to engage in health-related transportation planning, available technical tools, and applicable research and reports.

Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Safe routes to school and traffic pollution: get children moving and reduce exposure to unhealthy air. Safe Routes to School National Partnership; 2012. Available at URL: http://www.safero utespartnership.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Air_Source_Guide_web.pdf

This resource guide is intended to help Safe Routes to School practitioners be more effective at reducing the potential risks of exposure to traffic pollution so that participating children and families can be physically active in cleaner air. The guide was made possible by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Institute of Transportation Engineers. Designing walkable urban thoroughfares: a context sensitive approach. Washington, DC: Institute of Transportation Engineers; 2010. Available at URL: http://www.ite.org/css/FactSheet5.pdf [PDF – 3.51 MB]

In cooperation with the Congress for the New Urbanism, this report was developed in response to widespread interest for improving both mobility choices and community character through a commitment to creating and enhancing walkable communities.

Transportation and health toolkit. Convergence Partnership. 2010. http://www.kintera.org/site/c.fhLOK6PELmF/b.6298163/k.DEA9/Toolkits.htm

This toolkit presents an overview of transportation policy and planning; the connections between transportation, health, and equity; and policy opportunities to create healthy communities.

Dora C, Phillips M, editors. Transport, environment and health. Copenhagen(DK): World Health Organization. European series; No. 89, 2000. Available at URL: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/ass ets/pdf_file/0003/87573/E72015.pdf

This report from the World Health Organization examines the links between transportation and health on the international level.

Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. Traveler response to transportation system changes: Chapter 16: pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Transit Cooperative Research Program Report 95: Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board; 2012. Available at URL: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/ tcrp_rpt_95c16.pdf

Supported in part by CDC, this report examines options for designing and improving pedestrian and bicycle facilities to encourage safe active transportation. It focuses on the travel behavior and public health implications of pedestrian/bicycle areawide systems; non-motorized transportation- link facilities such as sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and on-transit accommodation of bicycles; and node-specific facilities such as street-crossing treatments, bicycle parking, and showers. Discussion of the implications of pedestrian and bicycle “friendly” neighborhoods, policies, programs, and promotion is also incorporated.