Transportation and Health Resource Hub - Air Pollution
How Measuring Vehicle Miles Traveled Can Promote Health Equity. (2019) 
This communications guide with case studies and lessons learned provides tools and resources for transportation professionals to improve health equity in their region. It focuses on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the passing of SB 743 in California that requires local governments to use Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) instead of Level of Service (LOS) as a metric to measure what environmental impacts transportation projects will have for the region.
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Selected Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution. (2023) Health Effects Institute
This report found growing confidence in the links between traffic related air pollution (TRAP) and several adverse health effects. A panel of experts reviewed 353 published scientific reports on the link between adverse health effects and traffic pollution. The panel found that there was a strong correlation between TRAP and early death due to cardiovascular disease. The panel also found that TRAP will continue to have severe and deadly health effects around the world, predominately in urban areas and areas near busy roadways.
Transportation research circular E-C239, arterial roadways research needs and concerns: informing the planning, design, and operation of arterial roadways considering public health
Arterial roads provide regional and local access to diverse economic and cultural resources that can positively influence community health. At the same time, arterial roads have been linked to various types of cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, poor birth outcomes, injuries, noise, and air pollution. They represent a prime opportunity for transportation and public health practitioners to work together to directly improve community health. Practitioners can learn from seven case areas covering research questions and salient concerns for practice. The document also includes over 250 questions that could be expanded into formal research problem statements.
Tennessee’s built environment and health case studies
This collection of case studies in Tennessee, primarily in rural communities, address the integration of health through master plans, corridor studies, sidewalk improvements, multi-modal access, and even a community kitchen. Each short case study (1-2 pages) has key lessons and recommendations that can be used by local advocates, community leaders, and governmental staff to identify strategies for integrating health. These case studies demonstrate the possibilities of integrating health into rural communities and small towns.
Technical advisory: strategies to reduce air pollution exposure near high-volume roadways
This Technical Advisory is a supplement to the California Air Resources
Board's Air Quality and Land Use Handbook: A Community Health Perspective (2005) It demonstrates that it is possible for planners, developers, and local governments to pursue infill development while simultaneously reducing exposure to traffic-related pollution. The Technical Advisory reveals several strategies that can be employed to protect the occupants of infill developments near high-volume roadways from air pollution exposure. This information can be found in a table, which can be used for quick reference, and also includes an expanded discussion of these strategies that includes details about co-benefits and potential drawbacks.
NCHRP research report 932: a research roadmap for transportation and public health management
The purpose of A Research Roadmap for Transportation and Public Health is to build upon thebody of literature strategic agendas, and research needs regarding calls for integrating transportation and health and to provide a plan for funding research over the next decade that can lead to greater consideration of health issues in transportation contexts. This report produced recommendations for integrating health into transportation, derived from a research process that involved both stakeholder engagement (including representatives from federal, state, and local transportation and health-related agencies) and a review and synthesis of existing literature (including peer-reviewed literature, grey literature such as reports, conference proceedings, magazines, and other published works). This report identified research needed to support specific agency processes to incorporate health; research gaps and needs and how research is translated into practice; research needed for emerging health issues; priority research problem statements, and developed an implementation plan for guiding research ideas into funded projects.
Healthy community design training
The Healthy Community Design Training made the connection between health and the built environment to transportation and land use professionals across Tennessee. The training demonstrates the strong link between health and community design, shows what makes for health promoting or health defeating community design, and provides policy considerations concerning a range of design features and decisions. The training is primarily intended for presentation to groups of local government officials and employees involved in land use and transportation decisions. Through tangible examples, presenting the Healthy Community Design Training matures the conversation on good community development practices.
Health promoting community design: outline of expected eturns
This toolkit provides general findings from project returns of health-promoting projects. With a better informed understanding of project outcomes, practitioners can expand efforts to create healthier and more livable places. This resource demonstrates that health promoting community design features hold the potential to provide economic, health, and ecological co-benefits to communities. Case studies from across the country, consolidated here, provide useful reference for those considering how or why to build healthier communities.
Health economic assessment tool for walking and cycling (HEAT)
The World Health Organization’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling is a user-friendly web-based tool to assess health impacts of active travel. Originally developed for WHO's Region of Europe the tool has been expanded for global use. As active travel inherently results in often substantial health benefits as well as not always negligible risks, assessments of active travel behavior or policies are incomplete without considering health implications. HEAT makes it easy to obtain ballpark estimates of health impacts and carbon emissions related to walking and cycling. HEAT caters to a broad audience of policy makers, advocates, urban and transport planners and practitioners, and researchers alike.
Considering health in US metropolitan long-range transportation plans: a review of guidance statements and performance measures
Transportation influences health primarily and most directly through traffic safety, air quality, physical activity, and accessibility. Despite the importance of all four components, only safety and air quality are typically considered during institutionalized transportation planning processes. This paper assesses how health impacts are considered in transportation planning by focusing on the long-range transportation plans that US metropolitan planning organizations develop. By assessing the state of the practice and discussing potential approaches, this review informs a stronger and more comprehensive consideration of health within the institutionalized structure of US metropolitan transportation planning.
Autonomous vehicles and public health
This report suggests that while autonomous vehicles (AVs) can increase some health risks (air pollution, noise, and sedentarism), proper regulation can reduce motor vehicle crashes and associated heath impacts, and reshape cities to promote healthy urban environments. Creating a Public Health framework and implementing policy recommendations for autonomous vehicles that include fully electric vehicles in a system of ridesharing and ridesplitting before the complete introduction of AVs into the market will yield public health benefits.
Framework for better integrating health into transportation corridor planning
The Health in Transportation Corridor Planning Framework is a detailed worksheet to help practitioners incorporate health into corridor planning studies at every stage of the planning process. It can be used within an existing corridor planning process and is flexible and adaptable to many different issues and contexts. Cases studies from the five transportation agencies that tested the Framework Five transportation are available here.
Metrics for planning healthy communities (APA)
Inside this "Metrics for Planning Healthy Communities" report is a set of Healthy Planning Metrics that can be used to assess, measure, monitor, and report progress toward healthy planning goals. Key built environment indicators and policies are identified for five healthy communities domains to promote health and measure health inequities. This document encourages planners and allied professionals to think about the different domains of health that they influence through their work.
Partnering with metropolitan planning organizations to advance healthy communities
This resource highlights the importance of transportation to human health, environmental health, and equity. It describes how public health professionals can work in the transportation field to affect health outcomes. Specifically, it describes the role of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) in the development of regional transportation plans and the opportunities for incorporating health into MPO plans and processes.
At the intersection of public health and transportation: promoting healthy transportation policy
The purpose of this American Public Health Association document is to demonstrate how important transportation is to public health. This resource details the pathways by which transportation affects health, such as physical activity, safety, air quality, and equity. In addition, this document provides an overview of federal transportation programs and spending that are used or can be used to improve health.