The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $2.12 million grant to Dr. Eun Sug Park from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and Dr. Elaine Symanski of Baylor College of Medicine to support a four-year study evaluating the impact of a regulatory intervention to reduce shipping emissions on public health.
public health
TTI’s Dr. Ipek Sener Appointed Chair of TRB’s Committee on Transportation and Public Health
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Scientist Dr. Ipek Sener was recently appointed chair of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Committee on Transportation and Public Health (AME70). According to trbhealth.org, this standing committee creates a space for transportation and health communities to expand knowledge about positive and negative health impacts related to transportation policies, procedures, and actions.
TTI’s Soheil Sohrabi Published AVs and Public Health Research Paper
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Graduate Research Assistant Soheil Sohrabi recently published the research paper “Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Public Health: A Conceptual Model and Policy Recommendations” in Sustainable Cites and Society. The paper’s authors also include Haneen Khreis, associate research scientist in TTI’s Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: More than Meets the Eye — Expanding How We See Transportation Safety in a World with Pandemics
Historically, transportation research has focused on avoiding dangers we can see. The first traffic light troubleshot human errors in judgment by better regulating traffic flow. As the 20th century unfolded, our focus shifted to innovations like seat belts and air bags to help us survive crashes we couldn’t avoid. Nowadays, sensors and cameras — high-tech […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree — Transportation as a Disease Vector: Our Research Must Focus on Mitigating the Spread of Infectious Diseases
In engineering, the term vector generally identifies a quantity that has magnitude and direction commonly represented by a directed line segment (i.e., an element of a vector space). Traditionally in medicine, however, a vector is an organism that doesn’t cause disease itself but spreads infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another. Inanimate objects […]
Study Shows Air Pollution a Key Contributor of New Childhood Asthma Cases Across Europe
Up to 11 percent of new childhood asthma cases could be prevented each year if European countries complied with current World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines, according to a study of 18 European countries co-led by Texas A&M Transportation Institute Associate Research Scientist Haneen Khreis, who is also on the Center for Advancing Research […]
At a Glance — The Intersection of Health and Transportation
Photo (bottom, right) credit: Amani A/Shutterstock.com
TTI, Texas A&M Explore Incentivizing Active Travel with Bus Rapid Transit Lines
Leaving your keys on the counter, you shut the door and head out for the new bus rapid transit (BRT) station. The sun is warm on your skin. Your muscles warm as you walk. A little footwork on days like today beats sitting in traffic congestion or waiting for what seems like forever on the […]
It’s Complicated: Transportation’s Relationship with Public Health
The intersection of transportation and health is a place where ironic and dissonant circumstances often collide. A driver whose life was nearly ended in a crash with one motor vehicle will typically depend upon another motor vehicle — a hospital-bound ambulance — to save his or her life. A person chooses to walk or bike […]
Health in Transportation Corridor Planning Framework
Why and when should transportation agencies try to address health concerns? “The simple answer is because transportation decisions can impact health in the community. Considering these impacts early, as decisions are made, supports better outcomes.” — Federal Highway Administration In 2016, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published the Health in Transportation Corridor Planning Framework, a […]
Identifying Transportation Solutions That Promote Healthy Aging
The quality of life and transportation access are inescapably tied, no matter who you are. But that link is especially critical if you’re among those Americans classified as older. And older is a fast-growing group. The Baby Boomer generation will be over the age of 65 by 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, meaning […]
Driven to Improve Safety: TTI, Texas A&M Partners Collaborate to Reduce Agricultural Crashes
Driving for work can be deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of work-related deaths in the United States. Beyond the tragic loss of life or permanent injury resulting from such incidents, societal costs are mounting via rising health care costs and increasing business […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: What Goes Around Comes Around
Convenience Culture? How About Compassion Culture? I’m a big fan of science fiction (SF) — old standards like The Twilight Zone and Star Wars, and newer classics-to-be like the Marvel movies. One reason I enjoy SF so much is that the genre often uses its fantastic landscapes and far-out circumstances to present, in stark relief, […]
Death-By-Walking is Becoming a Chronic Public Health Issue
By Michael Manser Pedestrian dangers are nothing new. To traverse city streets a century ago, pedestrians had to navigate a gauntlet of cars, bicycles, horse-drawn buggies, trucks and streetcars, typically unencumbered by expectations that they do so at designated crosswalks. But city streets have changed dramatically since then, as have all of the vehicular dynamics […]
TTI Creates New Heat Map Showing Relationship between Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Childhood Asthma Across the United States
Asthma cases attributable to traffic-related air pollution dramatically decreased between 2000 and 2010 A team of air quality and health researchers led by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) has created a first-of-its-kind, county-by-county interactive heat map and city-by-city table detailing the distribution of childhood asthma due to traffic-related air pollution across the United States. […]
CARTEEH Symposium Spotlights Common Focus of Transportation and Public Health Professionals
The interests of transportation and public health together occupy a somewhat paradoxical space. Vehicle emissions constitute a public health threat, at the same time that health care and health-promoting activities often depend on access to vehicular mobility. That reality was one of several themes explored by professionals at the Transportation, Air Quality, and Health Symposium […]
CARTEEH’s Khreis Shares Passion for Health Studies with TTI
The newest researcher in the Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy and Health (CARTEEH) of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is determined to make environmental health a prominent and permanent fixture of the Institute’s research initiatives going forward. And she’s off to a good start. Assistant Research Scientist Haneen Khreis began her […]
CARTEEH Presents Perspectives on Transportation Emissions, Exposures and Health Seminar
The Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH) is hosting a seminar, Perspectives on Transportation Emissions, Exposures and Health, featuring Dr. Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Dr. Nieuwenhuijsen is widely regarded as an expert in the field of air pollution exposures and public health and will […]
Rural Toolkit Devised to Help High-Crash-Rate Areas Improve Transportation Safety
Half of all fatal crashes in Texas occur on rural roadways. Researchers with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) have identified those areas of the state with the highest crash rates and devised a plan that focuses on solving their specific issues, despite limited resources. “This is a targeted, evidence-based, systematic approach that not only […]
Everything Is Connected: Research to Bring Public Health and Transportation Together
Traditionally, transportation research has focused its agenda on building the system to improve access to markets and, more recently, meet the demands of a world economy. With the highway system mostly in place, transportation research is now focusing on enhancing system performance and minimizing detrimental side effects. Some of those side effects have reached the […]