Transportation and Health Resource Hub - Research Report

A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION ON THE IMPACTS OF LANE WIDTH ON TRAFFIC SAFETY: Narrowing Travel Lanes as an Opportunity to Promote Biking and Pedestrian Facilities Within the Existing Roadway Infrastructure. (2023)

This report explores the feasibility and benefits of narrowing vehicle lanes to improve sidewalk and bike lane infrastructure within existing roadways. Through a comprehensive national study involving data from 1,117 street sections across seven cities, the research examines various street design factors and their association with traffic safety outcomes. The findings indicate that narrower lanes (specifically 9-foot and 10-foot lanes) do not increase crash rates and may even reduce them, particularly on roads with 30-35 mph speeds. This study underscores the potential for lane width reduction projects to enhance safety without compromising traffic flow.

Cross Sector Collaborations: Addressing Health Inequities in Access to Care Through Public Health and Transportation Partnerships. (2024)

This report discusses strategies for state, local, and territorial health agencies to build and maintain partnerships to tackle community transportation challenges to enhance healthcare access. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the University of Washington studied four state-level cases showing how partnerships across different sectors can bolster transportation efforts using adaptable funding approaches, established partnerships, and policy support.

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.

Michael, J.P., et al. (2023). A Safe System Guide for Transportation: Sharing this Approach to Lead Your Community to Action. AAA Foundation

This AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report provides techniques that can help communities across the nation to introduce and implement the Safe System concept and its principles. Specifically, this guide focused on how to effectively communicate with the public about why Safe System policies and engineering approaches are necessary, how they work, and how they benefit everyone who uses the roads. This guide is designed for decision makers, transportation professionals, and safety advocates working at the community level.

Toward Equitable Transportation and Land Use Policies: Strategies for Advancing Implementation | Prevention Institute  (2023)

Adopting policies to link land uses with more equitable transportation programs can only be effective when they are followed through with implementation and monitoring which are important in documenting the effectiveness (and refining the program if that effectiveness is less than desired).  A series of factors that drive implementation—ranging from strategic collaboration to lead-agency programming—are discussed with success stories summarized in several case studies.

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.  

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.