Public Health

Transportation's effects on public health are rarely discussed by policy-makers, but they remain very real -- and the National Research Council (NRC) put a number on them today, reporting that cars and trucks have about $56 billion in "hidden" health costs that are not reflected in the price of oil or electricity.

Over the summer, Streetsblog Capitol Hill published a riff on the rhetorical stylings of White House budget director Peter Orszag that coined a new phrase: "Transportation reform is health reform."

Despite talk of a nascent economic recovery, the brutal toll exacted on state budgets by the recession continues -- with palpable consequences for transit riders and already lower-income urbanites. Could the cure for cities' fiscal woes be a dramatic shift in drug policy?

The link between transportation and public health, explored on this page days ago, is plumbed further in a report released today by PolicyLink and the Prevention Institute with an introduction by Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House transport committee.

During the Washington budget debate earlier this year, a phrase widely attributed to White House budget director Peter Orszag was rolling off many a reporter's keyboard: "Health reform is entitlement reform."

As anyone who's tried to get around during a water main break knows, good old H2O has its own infrastructure and its own role in local transportation.

Back when the Senate kicked off its health care debate, Republicans tested out a new line of attack against health committee chairman Edward Kennedy's (D-MA) draft bill: Its investment in encouraging walking and biking amounts to inexcusable government waste.

Despite a growing awareness among conservatives that walking and biking are causes worth backing, Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to condemn bike-ped programs as wasteful "pork". The GOP's latest potshots at sustainable transportation come during debate over a health care bill that focuses mainly on insurance and hospitals, but also includes a public health grant program aimed at encouraging exercise.

When she wrote a column for the New York Sun last year about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own, Lenore Skenazy was pilloried by many as an irresponsible mom. She stuck to her guns, though, and started a blog dedicated to "sane parenting", advocating the idea that we are over-sheltering our children from infinitesimal threats such as stranger abduction. According to Skenazy, the kind of independence represented by that subway trip is necessary and healthy for children -- and their parents as well.