In the news:
Originally published Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 3:54 PM
How to build a healthy transportation system
Good transportation policy should take into account people's health and well-being, not just economic and environmental impacts, says Seattle physician and public-health leader Howard Frumkin.
Special to The Times
JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Seattle commuters put up with heavy traffic on Interstate 5.
WHAT does your health depend on?
Medicines are important. They can control blood sugar, prevent seizures, reduce blood pressure.
Genetics are also important. Just think of inherited conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease.
But life's circumstances play a huge role in health. We need clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, wholesome food to eat. We need healthy homes, schools and workplaces. We need nontoxic materials to use in all of life's activities — cleaning our homes, grooming ourselves, raising our children.
In just the same way, we need healthy transportation. When we get it wrong, the consequences can be dramatic. Consider these examples:
• Pollution from cars and trucks can aggravate heart disease and asthma. Routing heavy traffic away from hospitals, schools and day-care centers makes sense.
• Obliging people to commute by car reduces physical activity and contributes to the obesity epidemic, including heart disease and diabetes. Offering alternatives such as sidewalks and transit helps.
• Constant noise from a nearby highway can cause stress, raising the risk of heart disease. Sound barriers reduce this stress.
• Cyclists on busy thoroughfares risk being hit by cars. Bike routes on quiet side streets are safer.
• Medical facilities need to be readily accessible. Transportation routes should be planned accordingly.
In all these ways and more, we can build health and safety into our transportation system. But before we can aim for these goals, we need to step up and adopt them as goals.
A bill currently under consideration in the state House of Representatives does just that. This bill (HB 2370) would add human health to the policy goals of our state transportation system — right alongside existing goals such as economic vitality, mobility and environment.
We all want transportation to be healthy. What could make more sense than including health in our stated goals, and directing state transportation agencies to take health into account as they do their work?
Affirming health as a transportation goal doesn't require costly expenditures, or force any particular decisions. It simply reminds responsible officials to set health objectives and performance measures, as they routinely do for other goals — a way to guarantee that health is considered in our transportation plans. If this leads to better decisions (and it's hard to imagine that it won't), then we may even save money, by reducing the burden of heart disease, diabetes and other costly ailments.
The best transportation system is efficient, affordable, flexible, convenient — and healthy. From a public-health perspective, acknowledging health as a priority will weave it into our thinking and planning, and result in healthier decisions. If prevention is the best medicine, then transportation can be more than just transportation — it can be great health policy, too.
Howard Frumkin, a physician, is dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health. These opinions are his alone, and do not represent a university position.
