Use of Health Impact Assessment for Transportation Planning: Importance of Involving Transportation Agencies in Process

摘要

Background: While dozens of transportation-related health impact assessments (HIAs) have been done in the US, the characteristics of these HIAs and the interactions between public health professionals and transportation decision-makers in relation to these HIAs have not been documented. Methods: A master list of completed HIAs was used to identify transportation-related HIAs. Five HIAs were examined in detail in which there were substantial interactions between public health and transportation professionals during and after the HIA. Results: Fifty-seven transportation-related HIAs conducted in 19 states between 2004 and 2013 were identified. Topics included projects such as road redevelopments, bridge replacements, and development of trails and public transit, and policies such as road pricing, transit service levels, speed limits, complete streets, and safe routes to schools. The selected case studies included HIAs of San Francisco road pricing policy, a Seattle bridge replacement, new transit lines in Baltimore and in Portland, and the Atlanta Beltline transit, trails and parks project. The HIA recommendations led to decision changes in some cases and helped raise awareness of health issues by transportation decision makers in all cases. Conclusions: HIAs are now used for many topics within transportation. The range of involvement of transportation decision makers in conducting HIAs varies. The case studies presented may serve as models for the conduct of future transportation-related HIAs because transportation agency involvement may increase the likelihood that an HIA will influence subsequent decisions.