Transportation and Health Resource Hub - Tool

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.

Bicycle count data: what is it good for? A study of bicycle travel activity in central lane metropolitan planning organization (chapter 6: health analysis)

This report documents a myriad of uses for bicycle traffic counts including the ability to use counts in statistical modeling of bicycle miles traveled (BMT) in a medium sized urban area in Oregon. Chapter six documents the data and analysis steps necessary to estimate BMT and to use those estimates in a health impact model in order to demonstrate the health and economic benefits of that activity. An estimate of health care cost savings in Central Lane MPO reveal that health care costs are $3.3 to $16.2 million less each year due to the physical activity associated with bicycle activity. Being able to clearly communicate these economic benefits and cost of illness reduction can help agencies that deliver Medicaid and Medicare see the connection between infrastructure spending and costs of providing care.

The integrated transportation and health impact tool in Nashville, TN, USA: implementation steps and lessons learned

This article describes the implementation of Integrated Transportation and Health Impact Tool (ITHIM) in greater Nashville, TN, and the important lessons learned. ITHIM is a scenario planning tool that sets active transportation targets and calculates the resulting positive or negative impacts on population health. ITHIM also has the capability of monetizing healthcare savings from averted injury and disease. This resource provides a methodology for MPOs and state DOTs to calculate the potential health impacts and healthcare savings from increased walk, bike and transit trips.