Draft MTP/SCS Comments Received - sacog

SCS Health & Equity Metrics August 2011
SCS Health & Equity Performance Metrics
INTRODUCTION
In 2008, the California legislature passed SB375, the intent of which is to decrease emissions of
greenhouse gases to target levels in each region of the state. Given the connection between how
our environment is built and health behaviors, outcomes, and inequities, this is a unique
opportunity to elevate health and equity into transportation and land use planning.
The bodies responsible for implementation are the Metropolitan Planning Organizations
(MPOs) in each of the 18 regions of the state, and they are planning for this change through
their Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs), an update of transportation policies and guidelines,
as well as guidance on the types of projects (and in some cases the actual projects) that will be
constructed over the next 25 years. Within the RTPs, all MPOs will be developing a Sustainable
Communities Strategy (SCS), which is the document and vision for decreasing greenhouse gas
emissions through transportation and land use planning.
Given the high levels of chronic disease, including obesity, diabetes, and asthma, that we are
facing as a country, it is imperative that we address the root causes. We spend a higher percent
of our GDP on healthcare than any other country and while access to healthcare and genetics are
important factors that determine our health status, there is growing recognition that the land use
and transportation systems that influence our personal behaviors affect our health status even
more. As described below, transportation systems impact health in many ways, through injuries
and fatalities, environmental quality (e.g., air quality and noise), physical activity, and income.
These impacts are typically not distributed evenly across all populations, with lower income
populations and communities of color often facing worse outcomes for a variety of reasons.
Understanding the causes of these differences is an important piece of addressing them. For this
reason, we believe that equity (defined here to mean the absence of systematic disparities in
health or in the major social determinants of health, between groups with different levels of
underlying social advantage/disadvantage 1 ) must be assessed in addition to health.
A statewide group of public health advocates convened by Human Impact Partners has
developed the following set of 13 performance metrics for use in the RTP/SCS processes across
the state. In the past, public health and equity have not been fully considered in land use and
transportation planning and many health and equity outcomes related to those plans have been
poor. We hope to inform the discussion of performance metrics with a health perspective and
thereby improve future health outcomes related to these planning efforts. MPOs across the state
are including different voices in the Sustainable Communities Strategy discussions as part of their
RTPs. Our hope is that MPOs will consider including the following metrics in their SCSs and
including public health and equity professionals and advocates in the process of developing their
RTP/SCS.
This document lists the 13 health and equity performance metrics prioritized by statewide health
experts, agencies, advocates, and transportation planners. This list of 13 was chosen from an
original 129 indicators.
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