institute of transportation studies healthy regions, healthy people: the transportation – land use...

Institute of Transportation Studies

Healthy Regions, Healthy People:The Transportation – Land Use – Environment Connection

October 16th – October 18th 2005

UCLA Extension Public Policy Program


The Waxing Focus on Public Health in

Transportation, Land Use, and Environmental Policy

and Planning

Brian D. Taylor

Symposium Co-Chair


Public HealthThe Transportation – Land Use – Environment Connection

• Public health is a principal objective of civil society



• Public health is a principal objective of civil society

• But it can be a challenge to operationalize into public policy



• While often congruent with other fundamental societal objectives– economic prosperity,– political stability,– environmental sustainability,– and so on



• While often congruent with other fundamental societal objectives– economic prosperity,– political stability,– environmental sustainability,– and so on

• Such objectives can collectively conflict



• A hallmark of this symposium series has been an ongoing debate over the goals, conflicts, and congruence among three policy realms– Transportation– Land Use– Environment



• While we have learned much over the past 15 years, I think that it would be fair to say that we do not yet have the transportation – land use – environment connection entirely worked out



• While we have learned much over the past 15 years, I think that it would be fair to say that we do not yet have the transportation – land use – environment connection entirely worked out

• The links between…– transportation policies and transportation

outcomes,– or environmental policies and environmental

outcomes,– remain complex and debated



• And while many measures of public health are well-established…



• And while many measures of public health are well-established…

• I think that we can probably agree that the links between transportation, land use, and environmental policies, on the one hand, and health outcomes, on the other, are even more complex



• But we thrive on complexity here at Lake Arrowhead– Just try finding your room at 10:30 pm

tonight after a few glasses of wine



• But we thrive on complexity here at Lake Arrowhead– Just try finding your room at 10:30 pm

tonight after a few glasses of wine

• Our game plan…


Our Game planThe Transportation – Land Use – Environment Connection

• Sunday afternoon– Framing the issues for a diverse audience– Evaluating the issues in a systematic way



• Sunday afternoon– Framing the issues for a diverse audience– Evaluating the issues in a systematic way

• Sunday evening/Monday morning– Influence of transportation safety and risk

on public health



• Monday morning– Mobile sources, emissions, and health



• Monday morning– Mobile sources, emissions, and health

• Monday afternoon/evening– Urban form, travel, physical activity, and

health



• Tuesday morning– Translating ideas and research into policy

and practice


Framing and Evaluating the IssuesThis Session

• The Demographics of Public Health: Current Trends, Future Issues– Jonathan Fielding, Public Health Officer,

County of Los Angeles and Professor, Health Services and Pediatrics, UCLA


Framing and Evaluating the IssuesThis Session

• The Demographics of Public Health: Current Trends, Future Issues– Jonathan Fielding, Public Health Officer, County of Los

Angeles and Professor, Health Services and Pediatrics, UCLA

• Mobile Regions, Healthy People: Exploring the Transportation – Land Use – Environment – Public Health Connection– Genevieve Giuliano, Professor, School of Policy, Planning,

and Development, USC


Framing and Evaluating the IssuesThis Afternoon

• Measuring and Evaluating the Effects of Transportation Systems on Public Health

– Analyzing and Measuring the Public Health Costs/Benefits of Transport and the Built Environment

• Marlon Boarnet, Professor, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design, UC Irvine



• Incorporating Environmental and Health Costs/Benefits into Measures of Transportation System Performance– Steve Pickrell, Senior Vice-President,

Cambridge Systematics



• Incorporating Environmental and Health Costs/Benefits into Measures of Transportation System Performance– Steve Pickrell, Senior Vice-President, Cambridge Systematics

• The Price of Regulation: Measuring the Costs of Making Transportation Systems Cleaner and Safer– Daniel Sperling, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and

Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis


• Let me offer an example of the kinds of linkages we will be exploring over the next three days

Urban Form, Travel, Physical Activity, and Health


• Let me offer an example of the kinds of linkages we will be exploring over the next three days

• Both research and public policies on urban form and physical activity have mushroomed in recent years

– Exciting new collaborations between public health, urban design, and transportation professionals

– Have policymaking and practice gotten ahead of the research?

Urban Form, Travel, Physical Activity, and Health


1. The built environment affects walking, biking, and transit use

Some simple premises, a complicated issue


1. The built environment affects walking, biking, and transit use.

2. The proportion of trips made by foot, bike, or bus tends to be higher in central cities than in suburbs

Some simple premises, a complicated issue



2. The proportion of trips made by foot, bike, or bus tends to be higher in central cities than in suburbs.

3. Body weights in the U.S. are increasing and activity levels are declining (especially over the past two decades) raising important public health concerns

Some simple premises, a complicated issue…




3. Body weights in the U.S. are increasing and activity levels are declining (especially over the past two decades) raising important public health concerns.

4. Suburban developments are expanding and, therefore, contributing to obesity and public health problems





3. Body weights in the U.S. are increasing and activity levels are declining (especially over the past two decades) raising important public health concerns.

4. Suburban developments are expanding and, therefore, contributing to public health problems.

5. A return to more compact, mixed-use development patterns may thus be justified on public health grounds



• Influence of urban form on travel behavior– Lots and lots of studies, scads of them– Findings in a nutshell: compact and mixed-

use development is associated with more utilitarian biking and walking

Lots of Premises…What Does the Research Show?


• Influence of urban form on travel behavior– Of intense interest and relevance to planners

who regulate land uses and manage transportation systems

– Ongoing debates over:• Causality and interactions between people,

environments, and behaviors• The significance (rather than the direction) of the

effects

What Does the Research Show?


• Factors influencing physical activity– A focus on access to opportunities for

physical activity– A smaller, more recent literature examines the

relationships between urban form and physical activities



• Factors influencing physical activity– Findings in a nutshell

• Positive relationship between exercise venue access and physical activity

• Attractive walking environments increase both utilitarian and recreational walking

• Other neighborhood characteristics not consistently associated with walking or physical activity

• Individual/interpersonal factors influence physical activity more than physical environment factors



What is the travel-activity

link?


• Defining “active travel” as “destination-oriented travel” probably reflects a transportation analyst’s perspective of the issue

• An alternative way to define the terms:– Physical activity

• Travel-based physical activity– Utilitarian travel– Recreational travel

• Other physical activities

What is the travel-activity link?


• Social/psychological/economic factors more important than urban form/design

– Both in explaining travel behavior– And in explaining physical activity

• So why all of the attention on physical activity and urban form/design?

Some Observations…


• So why all of the attention on physical activity and urban form/design?

– Influencing behavior through policy is complex, risky

– Planners regulate land uses, manage transportation systems already (“To a person with a hammer…”)

– Congruent with efforts of those concerned with the problems of auto dependence



• That urban form/design can increase utilitarian walking/biking appears clear…

• But the link between utilitarian travel and overall physical activity appears less certain



• It’s clear that increasing access to exercise venues increases physical activity…

• But beyond increasing the number of parks, recreation facilities, etc., the best ways to use urban form/design approaches to increase physical activity are still being debated



• The focus on utilitarian travel in the transportation literature reveals a significant, and in my view problematic, gap in the transportation and public health literatures



• The focus on utilitarian travel in the transportation literature reveals a significant, and in my view problematic, gap in the transportation and public health literatures

• Different dependent variables– Transportation

• Access to (mostly non-physical) activities• Coping with the problems associated with auto

dominance

– Public health• Healthy communities• Physical activity and other healthy behaviors



TotalPhysicalActivity

Opportunities for Physical

Activities

Constraintson Physical

Activities

OtherPhysicalActivities

ActiveRecreational

Travel

ActiveTravel

ActiveUtilitarian

Travel

A Complex Picture:Urban Form, Utilitarian Travel, and Physical Activity

IndividualCharacteristics

EnvironmentalFactors


• The distinction between utilitarian and recreational travel is especially relevant to active travel by children

– “Recreational” travel may be utilitarian, as an important part of socialization, play, independence, and exercise



• How much walking is enough?– The vast majority of walking is not recorded in

transportation data sources– Most walking is…

• on-site (and not recorded in travel data)• trips to and from cars (86% of recorded trips, but

relatively short and not relevant to those concerned with auto dominance)



• How much walking is enough?– Utilitarian walking for other than very short

trips is often time consuming• Do the exercise benefits outweigh the opportunity

costs of not engaging in other, perhaps more physical activities?



• How much biking is enough?– Anecdotal data suggest that most biking is

unrecorded travel by children• a conflict with more dense, urban environments

that facilitate utilitarian walking?



• We are now seeing more careful empirical tests of more fully-specified models of physical activity…

– Which include, but are not limited to, access and physical environment factors

– Some of which will be reported on here



• Prior to such comprehensive analyses, the enormous literature on urban form and utilitarian travel might actually have clouded the issue of urban form and physical activity more than it clarifies



• Prior to such comprehensive analyses, the enormous literature on urban form and utilitarian travel might actually have clouded the issue of urban form and physical activity more than it clarifies

• These questions aside, this remains an exciting area of public policy and planning scholarship

– And we will hear tomorrow from many of the most thoughtful people working in this dynamic new field



• These questions aside, this remains an exciting area of public policy and planning scholarship

– And we will hear tomorrow from many of the most thoughtful people working in this dynamic new field

• It’s just these sorts of complex links between cause, effect, and public policy that we will tackle with relish over the next two and a half days



• The Demographics of Public Health: Current Trends, Future Issues

– Jonathan Fielding, Public Health Officer, County of Los Angeles and Professor, Health Services and Pediatrics, UCLA


Institute of Transportation StudiesThe Road Ahead

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