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PhD Dissertation Final Oral Defense (April 2024)
An Investigation of Health Impacts of Transportation Planning: A Framework Development
Student: Mohamed AlQahtani, PhD ESM
Name of the Main Advisor Ghassan Abu-Lebdeh
Transportation systems, crucial for mobility and economic growth, significantly influence public health, a fact supported by both anecdotal and objective evidence. However, the travel demand forecasting (TDF) process, fundamental to transportation planning (TP), commonly neglects public health impacts. The standard approach to proposing and evaluating alternative transportation plans fails to incorporate health-related measures of effectiveness (MOE), overlooking significant health consequences of transport systems. This omission represents a critical gap in understanding and addressing health implications of transportation decisions. No explicit health-oriented measures of effectiveness (MOE) are included in the evaluation of alternate plans. This is a glaring gap in knowing how consequential transport systems to health are. This research aims to bridge this gap. Seven Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were developed that capture dynamic interactions between transport/travel activities and health. The models utilized travel mode choices, travel duration, and congestion frequency as inputs. A framework was developed to provide guidance, add those models, and evaluate public health measures and traditional economics-centric measure of TP. To demonstrate utility of the developed approach, a transportation network with 8 zones was used. Eight different relevant and realistic land use and travel scenarios were developed and then evaluated. For each scenario, health outcomes were determined, leading to the identification of health improvements specific to each scenario. The seven ANN models reflected 7 possible health goals of transportation planners. Therefore, planners and decision makers can have the ability to choose scenarios that best serve their purposes. The eighth scenario that had mixed land used and different available modes of transport (high percentage of usage of walking, cycling, and bus combined ‘85%’ - in comparison to cars ‘15%’-) was identified as the most favorable scenario in all possible goals (except for one) based on percentage of health improvement (>20% in all goals). The unique goal focusing on reducing stress frequency and overall health issues preferred the fifth scenario, involving mixed land use with car usage at 40% and bus at 60%, as the most beneficial. This scenario yielded a significant health improvement of 45.18%, distinguishing it as the optimal choice for this specific health goal.
For more information, please contact [email protected].