Bringing Health Equity into Long Range Transportation Planning

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Course Details

A growing body of evidence documents significant health impacts of transportation investments and land use actions. To date, most long-range transportation planning efforts fail to account for health and downstream equity and economic impacts. The National Public Health Assessment Model (N-PHAM) was developed by Urban Design 4 Health (UD4H) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and combines detailed granular built and natural environment data with demographics to predict health outcomes.

NPHAM has been applied in 12 regions of North America to date and empowers decision-makers to choose investments and growth scenarios with the greatest health equity and economic benefits. This session will showcase two case study examples from California using the National Public Health Assessment Model (N-PHAM). Presenters from the Sacramento Council of Governments (SACOG) serving the Sacramento metropolitan region and the San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG) in metropolitan Stockton relate their experiences applying this tool using different approaches to help achieve their RTP goals.

Learn how equity, social justice, and economic considerations, along with health implications can help to better target infrastructure spending, especially for active transportation and transit-based modes. Obtain guidance on how to support transportation decision-makers with meaningful metrics using a detailed health-based lens.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand how population-level health indicators can be used to help guide decision-making in long-range transportation planning and infrastructure investments using state-of-the-art peer-reviewed published evidence, analytical methods, and data.
  • Understand data and methods used to measure and predict relationships between built and natural environmental features that impact health and social justice and how to interpret findings for decision-makers and communities.
  • Communicate how localized health equity and downstream economic considerations are related to transportation and land use decisions and where to gain further information over contrasting evaluation and presentation methods.
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