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HERO ID
7457308
Reference Type
Book/Book Chapter
Title
Chapter seventeen - Community design, street networks, and public health
Author(s)
Marshall, WE; Garrick, N; Piatkowski, DP; Newton, D
Year
2020
Publisher
Elsevier
Book Title
Advances in Transportation and Health
Page Numbers
371-388
DOI
10.1016/B978-0-12-819136-1.00017-6
URL
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128191361000176
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is a chapter of
7473119
Advances in transportation and health: Tools, technologies, policies, and developments
Abstract
The job description of transportation planners and engineers needs to explicitly include consideration of public health outcomes. Actually doing so has proven to be difficult, in part due to health research often focusing on vague terms such as sprawl or walkability. Better guidance can only come from better research. This chapter delves into the health-related impacts of street network and street-level measures based on a strand of recently published research papers focused on more than a decade’s worth of data for 24 California cities. Our results suggest that adapting our built environments and street networks for higher levels of compactness and connectivity, along with improved configurations, has the potential to be an impactful and proactive approach toward reducing the number of people that are getting injured on our roads; increasing their physical activity; and improving health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Fewer lanes on the major roads were the primary street-level factor associated with better outcomes. However, instead of focusing on street-level efforts, as is customary, this research suggests the need for a network-level approach to planning for healthy communities.
Keywords
Street networks; street design; Vision Zero; Complete Streets; active transportation
Editor(s)
Khreis, Haneen
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