AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION * ASTHMA AND ALLERGY
FOUNDATION OF AMERICA * CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH NETWORK * CHILDREN’S NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
* ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE * GRACE PUBLIC FUND * PHYSICIANS
FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
July 26, 2002
The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street SW
Room 10200
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary Mineta:
We represent a diverse array of groups dedicated to
supporting and improving public health. We are writing to
request that the Administration’s proposal for
reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA-21) contain measures that protect that
public’s health from unintended consequences of
transportation initiatives.
A transportation system that encourages or supports
increased use of personal automobiles can impair human
health by a variety of means, including:
- Increased injuries and deaths from motor vehicle
crashes (including pedestrians and bicyclists);
- Increased respiratory illness, infant mortality
and other health damage connected with exposure
to air pollutants;
- Impaired water quality related to runoff from
paved land; and
- Decreased physical activity, contributing to the
nation’s epidemic of obesity and diabetes
We therefore call on the Administration to take the
following steps in their reauthorization proposal:
- Require new road projects to meet the same
criteria and local funding match as required for
new transit projects.
- Require health impact statements for all new
transportation plans and major projects. These
statements must address the potential impact of
the proposed plan on public health, including
fitness, community cancer risk, health effects
related to air quality, and
transportation-related injuries and fatalities,
as well as consideration of disparate impacts on
minorities.
- Oppose environmental streamlining, which
threatens to promote failed policies of trying to
build our way out of congestion. Instead, we
should require integrated state, regional, and
local transportation, natural resource, and
growth plans.
- Defend requirements that all updates to 20-year
transportation plans and short-term programs
conform with Clean Air Act State Implementation
Plans.
- Expand and strengthen the Congestion Mitigation
Air Quality Program (CMAQ), which provides $1.3
billion a year for non-highway widening projects
that reduce pollution in non-attainment areas.
Seek funding growth proportionate to the
population of all newly designated non-attainment
areas.
- Boost tax incentives for employers to offer
employees tax-free transit benefits.
Changes in how we manage and operate transportation
can save money and lives, cut congestion, and improve
environmental quality. But to achieve this we need better
planning, better accountability for the effects of
decisions, and fuller consideration of alternatives to
building more and bigger highways. We strongly urge you
to move this country in the direction of transportation
systems that benefit, rather than harm, the health and
well-being of our residents and communities. We look
forward to working closely with you in this effort.
Sincerely,
Donald Hoppert, American Public Health Association
Jaqui Vok, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
Daniel Swartz, Children's Environmental Health Network
Benjamin Gitterman, MD, Children's National Medical
Center
John Balbus, MD, M.P.H., Environmental Defense
Alice Slater, GRACE Public Fund
Robert K. Musil, Ph.D, M.P.H., Physicians for Social
Responsibility
Cc: Mary Peters, Adminstrator, FHWA
Emil Frankel, Assistant Secretary for Policy, US DOT
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