Measuring the Global Health Impact of Transportation Reform

1.2 million people die in traffic crashes each year. And physical inactivity is responsible for 3.2 million deaths and 19 million healthy life years lost annually. Other health risks come from outdoor urban air pollution, traffic injuries, traffic noise, climate change and non-communicable diseases, like heart disease and diabetes. [WHO's Dr. Carlos] Dora also mentioned the lack of access to vital goods and services, as well as social networks, equity and cohesion, as being a “profound and under-reported” global health risk.

Current indicators of transport usually measure how well transport systems move vehicles, not how they affect people. These include measurements like kilometers of paved road, average speed or rates of car ownership. But better indicators that would help us understand transport’s relationship with public health would include other measurements, such as kilometers of separated cycle lanes, number of sidewalks, or the level of service of public transport. “It’s a different look at the same kind of picture,” Dora said.

The public health impacts of transport can be examined from many perspectives. From an economic standpoint, you can measure how much money a country spends per disease, the number of lost days of work and the cost of years spent with a disability. WHO has even developed a tool, known as the health economic assessment (HEAT) tool, to estimate the economic savings resulting from reductions in mortality that result from cycling. There are countless other models that measure other indicators.