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https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/events

Fourteen Pathways between Urban Transportation and Health: A Conceptual Model, Literature Review, and Burden of Disease Assessment

Transportation has been linked to several adverse health impacts, with a large, but modifiable, burden of disease. In this work, researchers conceptualized and documented the linkages between transportation and health. Following that, the researchers quantified the impacts of transportation on health in a case study in Houston, Texas, that focused on premature mortality attributable to three pathways: air pollution, noise, and motor vehicle crashes. Researchers found that the pathways linking transportation to health include some that are beneficial, such as when transportation serves as means for social connectivity, independence, physical activity, and access. Some pathways link transportation to detrimental health outcomes from air pollution, road travel injuries, noise, stress, urban heat islands, contamination, climate change, community severance, and restricted green space, blue space, and aesthetics. Researchers defined each pathway and summarized its health outcomes as they occur in the literature and showed that transportation-related exposures and associated health outcomes, and their severity, can be influenced by inequity and intrinsic and extrinsic effect modifiers. In Houston, the researchers estimated 302 (95 percent confidence interval [CI]: 185–427) premature deaths were attributable to transportation-related noise, compared to 330 fatalities from motor vehicles, 631 (95 percent CI: 366–809) from PM₂.₅, and 159 (95 percent CI: 0–609) from NO₂. Transportation-related noise and motor vehicle crashes were responsible for 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent of all-cause premature deaths in Houston, respectively. The estimated premature death rate attributable to transportation-related noise was comparable to the death rate caused by suicide, influenza, or pneumonia in the United States. PM₂.₅ was responsible for 7.3 percent of all-cause premature deaths, which is higher than the death rate associated with diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease, or motor vehicle crashes in the United States. Households with lower median income had a higher risk of adverse exposure and premature deaths. Researchers also showed a positive relationship between health impacts attributable to air pollution and road traffic passing through census tracts, which was more prominent for NO₂. Although some of the pathways linking transportation and health are widely discussed in the literature, others are new or under-researched. This conceptual model can form the basis for future studies looking to explore the transportation-health nexus.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Final Report
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 103p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01782637
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: TTI-03-21
  • Contract Numbers: 69A3551747128
  • Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
  • Created Date: Sep 22 2021 5:09PM