Evaluating Health Benefits of Transportation Policies Designed in Collaboration with Environmental Justice Organizations

Transportation accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and negatively affects air quality and health outcomes both locally and regionally. These effects are borne disproportionately by historically marginalized, environmental justice (EJ) communities, who typically face higher exposures to transportation-related air pollution and higher baseline rates of morbidity and mortality. Health impact analyses (HIAs) can help to elucidate the benefits of transportation emissions reductions, but sometimes are not informed by sufficient input from affected communities. We develop an HIA framework and apply our analytical model in collaboration with seven EJ organizations throughout the Northeastern and Mid Atlantic US to assess the air quality and health benefits of various transportation policies.

Potential transportation interventions were designed based on each community's geographic area and policy focus and interests. Proposed interventions vary across the transportation landscape and included= electrifying school buses in Connecticut, shifting travel mode from cars to active transport like walking or cycling in Massachusetts and Virginia, and electrifying heavy duty trucks in New York and New Jersey. Emissions changes caused by these transportation interventions were modeled using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, and health benefits resulting from air quality changes were estimated using the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program in R (BenMAPR). Air quality-related health benefits were quantified across a regional modeling domain. This analysis excludes benefits from active transport.

In a preliminary evaluation of electrifying the school bus fleet (~8,000 buses) in Connecticut, we find that school bus emissions in Connecticut cause approximately 0.6 deaths per year across the model domain (predominantly in Connecticut), with electrification reducing these deaths by about two-thirds to 0.2 deaths per year. The magnitude of health benefits is consistent with the size of the fleet and associated emission reduction, and this quantification process provides information of value to EJ stakeholders and represents an externality that is important to quantify in developing transportation policy proposals.