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The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation (USA)

This report, by the American Public Health Association, was released in 2010. This report outlines how the connection between health and the built environment impacts the pocketbook; it also provides a summary of the process of planning, funding and building transportation systems, and discusses key opportunities for public health professionals to get involved in the process.

The full costs to public health of transportation are only beginning to be understood. Although health impacts—such as not being able to walk safely to school or breathe clean air—may not seem tangible, they can in fact be valued. These costs are as real and in certain instances as measurable as the costs of steel and concrete. It has often been said that “what gets measured gets done.” To date, the costs of public health impacts have been “externalized”—that is, they are not accounted for in the current framework of planning, funding and building highways, bridges and public transit.No doubt, different decisions about transportation investments would be made if health-related costs were incorporated into the decision-making process.

The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation | 1.3 MG PDF

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