TREC Friday Transportation Seminar: Intersection of Safety + Race + Transportation - November 6, 2020
This past TREC Friday Transportation Seminar dealt with the intersection of safety, race, and transportation. Charlene McGee, the current program manager for REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) with Multnomah County, spoke on the glaring public health disparities amongst the African-American/Black population in Multnomah County and noted transportation as a social determinant of health.
In Multnomah County, African-Americans account for about seven percent of the population. Yet data shows higher percentages of poorer health conditions for African-American adults in comparison to White adults. In regards to the disparities, 17 percent of African-American adults live with diabetes, compared to seven percent of White adults, and when it comes to obesity, 43 percent for African-American adults versus 22 percent for White adults.
Furthermore, the leading causes of death amongst African-Americans; heart disease, cancer, accidents (unintentional injuries), cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes, are all linked to transportation and the built environment. Previous developments have gentrified communities, leading to displacement having an impact on health. Most notably, these families have been displaced to areas in the county (such as Rockwood) with below-par sidewalks and/or missing sidewalks on both sides of the streets, discouraging walking and/or biking.
Without a doubt, transportation projects are not solely transportation projects. It cuts across multiple levels, bringing forth a variety of issues. As Charlene presented, it is a critical social determinant of health. I agree with her in that there has to be a greater collaboration amongst health workers and transportation planners. Through my internship I have witnessed this play out a bit. An advisory committee that ODOT conjured up for their tolling projects have inquired about a potential Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to determine the ramifications of transportation projects on public health. While the National Environmental Protection Act process calls for an extensive impact analysis, on major transportation projects, that include air and water quality impacts, there is no analysis done on long-term health effects such as noted above. With data and extensive research to back up the call for HIA’s, there is no federal requirement to force agencies and contractors to conduct such analysis. Precisely, it is up to each project to determine whether or not to conduct an HIA.
Perhaps more advocacy and lobbying efforts can help push for some health protections on vulnerable communities. Or perhaps it is about the 5 P’s mentioned by Charlene; Purpose towards racial equity, People, Places, Process, and Power.
The shift toward incorporating health has come late to transportation planning, for better or worse. I'd point to at least three reasons for that: 1) research catching up to practice in terms of physical (in)activity and health impacts; 2) late arrival (or return) of non-motorized travel as a player in US policy; and 3) siloing of funding and policy (and research) between health and transportation. I think there's a case to made that the "5th Era of Transportation" could/should be the Healthy Transportation Era. I mentioned in lecture that Congressman Blumenauer told me the best thing we could do as transportation planners was to make the connection to health. His take was that health is (was?) a cross-party line issue compared with, say, climate change or broader sustainability.
ReplyDeleteThank you Frank for sharing your thoughts regarding the disproportionate health outcomes to historically disenfranchised populations and relating that to transportation. Going forward with Dr. Joes "5th era of transportation" idea, I agree bringing health into the criteria for transportation policy is both pragmatic and really important. I think transportation and land use are tightly coupled when thinking about access to health. Going forward with localized policy efforts at the neighborhood level, I think access to healthy foods should play a key role when considering where to spend transportation dollars.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about you're example of the Rockwood neighborhood and the surrounding Portland neighborhoods of Centennial and Glenfair, It's true some of these health impacts a directly related to the built environment in the right of way. I think less directly it's also a question of accessibility to land uses. Parts of these neighborhoods suffer from lack of access to grocery stores. For future smaller scale neighborhood plans I think it should be a key concern for planners to make places that "healthy" stores will find attractive places to set up shop.
Thanks for sharing. I couldn't agree more that the health impacts of transportation play a huge role in creating a more equitable city. I'm learning through our international city reports that this is a huge consideration in how Copenhagen plans out its transit network. The main focus of their regional plan is how to get residents on board with healthier green transit options. The goal us to have most people bicycling or walking to their destinations. Public transit is meant to compliment these modes, not dominate. Additionally, planners in Copenhagen would ideally live in a city completely void of automobile traffic. I would absolutely love to see this approach applied more often here in the states. I understand there are several political obstacles to achieving that, but I think we're slowly headed in that direction.
ReplyDeleteHey Andrew, thanks for providing input. That is one thing about Copenhagen that I have caught on via your city reports and other literature. To me it seems that planners in Copenhagen have a clear picture of how to reach their desired goals of distributing health benefits and have less people drive cars. And I have to agree with your point about political obstacles preventing U.S. cities from achieving similar transit networks. Once the government puts health and environment above automobiles, then perhaps we can see a bigger push for active transportation.
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