haneen isee young - transport

Healthy City InitiativeHaneen Khreis, MSc (Eng.) Transport Planning and Engineering

Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds

Compliance,

effectiveness

Atmospheric transport,

chemical transformation,

and deposition

Human time-activity in relation

to indoor and outdoor air quality;

Uptake, deposition, clearance, retention

Susceptibility factors;

mechanisms of damage

and repair, health outcomes

Regulatory

action

Emissions

Ambient air

quality

Exposure/

dose

Human

healthHEI, 2003

My PhD

Transport Planning/ Engineering and Policy and Public Health

Where are we now?

Where do we want to go?

What will guide us?

How will we get there?

What is transport engineered/ planned for?

Objectives translation in real life

• The European Commission’s Action Plan on Urban Mobility (EC, 2009) recommends and encourages SUMP

• White Paper (EC, 2011) proposed SUMP to become mandatory

• Design tools to guide in achieving sustainability in urban transport

• Name important objectives in the ‘transport planner’s’ world

Public health has not been a very dominant aspect of transport research and practice

“ The transportation system is often envisioned as the engine of development. It is seen as the backbone of the twentieth century’s economic and social progress and is the means by which humans access goods and services and connect to communities … … The ease with which materials and goods can be moved across and between nations has transformed the structure of national economies, which are becoming increasingly interconnected…” (Hall et al., 2014 in “Sustainable Transportation” page 81)

Bradford’s Tong Street 1st October 2015 @7:45am

“The UK transport system supports a staggering 61 billion journeys a year. In broad terms it provides the right connections, in the right places, to support the journeys that matter to economic performance ... … Correspondingly, transport policies offer some remarkable economic returns with many schemes offering benefits several times their costs, even once environmental costs have been factored in” (The Eddington Transport Study, 2006 in Forward)

“Tellingly, investors rate London as the most attractive city to do business in Europe and view the quality of its international connections, and its domestic networks, as a key element of its advantage”(The Eddington Transport Study, 2006 in Forward)

What is (should) transport (be) planned for?

Providing fair access to needs and opportunities?

• Projects appraisals cost-benefit analysis should be different

• Little on the environment

• Many social impacts are not quantifiable

• Public health indicators QALY and Value of a Statistical Life –what environmental impacts are taken into account???

• Yet a window of opportunity!Antonio Ferreira Karen Lucas

Transport Planning/ Engineering and Policy and Public Health

Where are we now?

Where do we want to go?

What will guide us?

How will we get there?

What will guide us?

“The complexity unleashed by the integration of regional and national economies means that tracing who or what is responsible for negative externalities is not a simple question to ask or answer. Yet, the challenges they pose to society and the environment demand that we try…” (Hall et al., 2014 in “Sustainable Transportation”

page 81)

Discussion

Growing emphasis on “selected” indicators – why?

“Confounding effects” &“unintended consequences”

“Ambiguity” &“short-termism”

Promote a “Healthy City” vision?

• “Cities have long been known to be society's predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also its main source of crime, pollution, and disease.”(Bettencourt et al., 2007)

• “Accounting for over 70% of the EU population and over 80% of the Union's GDP, European cities are an essential contributor to EU growth and competitiveness.” (EPRS, 2014)

• Active cities, cultural/artistic cities, green cities, innovative cities, just cities, safe cities, smart cities, social cities, sustainable cities, wealthy cities…

• And public health needs to be a transversal theme at all policy levels in any future city’s vision(s) – a team’s statement!

• The big question: is focusing on public health a distraction from economic difficulties or a way out of it?

What multi-sectorial collaboration can bring to the table?

• “…Nations and regions that invest in the development of broader sustainable development visions, goals and objectives are likely to develop more comprehensive solutions involving multiple sectors and several institutions with related functions. They are also more likely to identify confounding effects of policies that may be good for one sector, but not particularly effective for another, thus motivating agencies to work together to achieve systemic and enduring solutions” (Hall et al. 2014)

• (Complex and interlinked) evidence needs to be communicated effectively and in a timely manner

• Policy not geared for long term: boundaries and innovative methods pushed with time-scales that are difficult to grasp

• The big question: is focusing on public health a distraction from economic difficulties or a way out of it?

References

• HEI Accountability Working Group. Assessing Health Impact of Air Quality Regulations: Concepts and Methods for Accountability Research. Communication 11. Boston: Health Effects Institute, 2003.

• Bettencourt, L. M., Lobo, J., Helbing, D., Kühnert, C., & West, G. B. (2007). Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 104(17), 7301-7306.

• European Commission DG Energy and Transport (2009) Action plan on urban mobility. Brussels, DGTREN.

• European Commission DG Move (2011) Road map to a single European transport area: towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.

• European Parliament Research Service (2014) Urban mobility – shifting towards sustainable transport systems. Brussels, EPRS.

• Hall, R. P., Gudmundsson, H., Marsden, G. and Zietsman, J. (2014) Sustainable Transportation, Sage Publications, Incorporated.

haneen isee young - transport

Health & Medicine