HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The Okeechobee Blvd & SR 7 Multimodal Corridor Study included an emphasis on the health of corridor users. Through a Health Impact Assessment, or "HIA," the effects of a plan, project or policy can be evaluated before it is built or implemented.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an HIA brings potential positive and negative public health impacts and considerations to the decision-making process that fall outside traditional public health arenas such as transportation and land use. An HIA provides practical recommendations to increase positive health effects and minimize negative health effects. The goal of an HIA is to provide recommendations during the decision-making process that will protect health and reduce health inequities.
Impacts of Enhanced Transit on Health
Reporting
Sharing results and recommendations with decision makers
Assessment
What is the current status? What are the health effects of potential impacts?
Enhanced transportation systems have significant potential to positively impact health and equity within their affected communities.
The places we work, live, and play have greater implications on our health. Specifically, our environments can also play a role in encouraging health promoting behaviors such as bicycling, walking, access to employment, education, healthcare, and healthy food options. As part of our built environment, transportation systems with design elements that encourage health promoting behaviors and aim to reduce health disparities can improve both our larger state of health and well-being within our communities.
From an equity perspective, access to enhanced transportation options may help to mitigate the negative health impacts experienced by socially vulnerable populations.
Transportation systems developed with equity in mind can improve access to opportunities that facilitate a healthy life, such as:
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Employment centers & job opportunities
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Business centers
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Parks & green spaces for recreational activities
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Schools and universities
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Hospitals, medical centers, clinics, etc.
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Community centers, places of worship, and other places of social community connectedness.
Integrated Transportation and Health Impact Model
The health analysis of the transportation alternatives assessed potential health impacts in terms of the following factors:
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Social vulnerability
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Equity
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Ambient stress
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Construction impacts
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Construction costs
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Risk of physical injury
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Traffic patterns
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Green spaces
Integrated with the Transit-Alternative health analysis, the Integrated Transportation and Health Impact Model, or ITHIM, captured measures of physical activity, air pollution, and road traffic injuries.
The Transit-Alternative Health Score quantifies the impact of each measure on health for each of the listed scenarios. Values are assigned based on literature review and professional/technical expertise.
Health impacts of each transportation alternative were reported on a scale from 1 – 5, where:
1 = Impact on health is negative
2 = Impact on health is somewhat negative
3 = Impact on health is neutral
4 = Impact on health is somewhat positive
5 = Impact on health is positive
As part of the larger Transit-Alternative Health Score, the ITHIM is a modeling tool that quantifies the impact of changes to active travel behavior patterns on health.
Depending on the design features included within the multimodal alternatives considered by the Palm Beach Transportation and Planning Agency (TPA), the ITHIM predicts shifts in the number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to Personal miles traveled (PMT).
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Proposed alternatives are divided into categories based on projected shifts in VMT to PMT.