Health

Relentless car journeys don’t just occupy our time; they significantly shape our mood and overall outlook on life. Here's how.

Long-term exposure to toxic pollutants produced by cars and trucks causes heart disease, respiratory and lung issues in adults and children, dementia, miscarriage, psychotic episodes in teens, and reduced cognitive ability.

Instead of endless promises to fix America's "crumbling roads and bridges," filmmaker Andy Boenau argues we need to talk about our crumbling minds and bodies — and how our autocentric infrastructure approach contributes to them.

The post How Auto-Centric Infrastructure Is Making Us Sick appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

When San Francisco streets are opened up to people for Sunday Streets, the influx of foot traffic brings a host of health and economic benefits to the city's neighborhoods, according to findings presented by Dr. Susan Zieff, a professor of kinesiology at SF State University, at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing yesterday.

(Editor's note: This is Part 3 in a 3-part series on the Bay Area watershed. In Part 1, we examined a radical new daylighting proposal in Berkeley; and in Part 2, we looked at the changes that SF streets may face under a bold plan by the Public Utilities Commission.)

(Editor's note: This is Part 1 in a 3-part series on the Bay Area watershed)

The connection between transportation reform -- an emphasis on land use that makes biking and walking as viable as auto travel for routine trips -- and health reform is one that's not often made, despite the best efforts of the Obama administration.

Transportation's effects on public health are rarely discussed by policy-makers, but they remain very real -- and the National Research Council (NRC) put a number on them today, reporting that cars and trucks have about $56 billion in "hidden" health costs that are not reflected in the price of oil or electricity.