How Does Transportation Affect Public Health?

Transportation has a central bearing on public health. In the recent years, there has been a major concern on the rising cost of health care across the world. Statistics indicate that over 40 percent of the provincial budget in the United States is allocated to the health care sector. The cause and ways to mitigate diseases has been of great importance to policy makers. In fact, research indicates that a large extent of the diseases which pause a threat to public health are chronic and can be mitigated and even prevented through putting in place sound measures. Of all the factors that impact public health, transportation comes off as eminent. Transportation systems determine the manner in which a community is set up including access to healthcare, …show more content…
For a long time, physical activity has been associated with public health. Research shows that physical activity thin out the risk of diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Besides, anxiety, depression, among other mental conditions is palliated through physical activity. Of prime importance is the fact that physical activity, coupled with dietary discipline, plays a key role in preventing individuals from being obese. Inactivity and diet related deaths exceed 300,000 in any given year, with an economic cost of almost $5.7 billion. Over and above the striking statistics on danger of inactivity, it surprises to learn that transportation systems have a prime role to play hereof. Despite hanging a wide range of ways to stay physically active, such as organized sport and gym, most individuals opt to walk and cycle. This is because cycling and walking do not require any skill; they are inexpensive; and can be undertaken consistently with much ease. Given this, it becomes clear that one of the sure ways of enhancing public health is through encouraging walking and cycling. Transportation policy makers can furnish this having comprehensive planning that provides the public with separate cycling and jogging lanes when making transportation policies (Rissel et al., 2012). Incontestably, transportation serves a key role in promoting physical activity and fitness of the …show more content…
Urban centers are the most hit by air pollution owing to the plethoric existence of automobiles, which relates to a high degree of pollution. The emission from vehicles not only posses the capacity to cause annihilating effects on human health but also to the climate, such as depletion of the ozone layer, which lead to global warming. In regard to public health, the pollutants from vehicles can cause respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and asthma. Additionally, the emissions increase the risk of suffering form grievous diseases such as cancer, not to mention the medical costs that accompany such ailments. More particularly, the emissions have been found to be causing over 30,000 untimely deaths in each given year. Generally, transportation is responsible for over 50 percent of air pollution, which puts the health of the public at stake (Mansfield et al., 2015). Irrefutably, transport policies ought to not only look at improving transport systems but also at the health repercussions that