A Health Impact Assessment of Proposed Public Transportation Service Cuts and Fare Increases in Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.A.)

Peter James, Kate Ito, Jonathan J. Buonocore, Jonathan I. Levy and Mariana C. Arcaya
Additional contact information
Peter James: Departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Kate Ito: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Jonathan J. Buonocore: Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Jonathan I. Levy: Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany St. Talbot Building, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Mariana C. Arcaya: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Transportation decisions have health consequences that are often not incorporated into policy-making processes. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process that can be used to evaluate health effects of transportation policy. We present a rapid HIA, conducted over eight weeks, evaluating health and economic effects of proposed fare increases and service cuts to Boston, Massachusetts’ public transportation system. We used transportation modeling in concert with tools allowing for quantification and monetization of multiple pathways. We estimated health and economic costs of proposed public transportation system changes to be hundreds of millions of dollars per year, exceeding the budget gap the public transportation authority was required to close. Significant health pathways included crashes, air pollution, and physical activity. The HIA enabled stakeholders to advocate for more modest fare increases and service cuts, which were eventually adopted by decision makers. This HIA was among the first to quantify and monetize multiple pathways linking transportation decisions with health and economic outcomes, using approaches that could be applied in different settings. Including health costs in transportation decisions can lead to policy choices with both economic and public health benefits.

Keywords: Health Impact Assessment; public transportation; air pollution; physical activity; crashes; monetization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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