It’s difficult to be healthy when the world around you is not. Today, 85 percent of Americans live in metropolitan urban areas where transportation infrastructure, developed for the car, undermines their health.
With the Initiative for Health-Oriented Transportation (HOT), the Global Health Institute aims to improve community health by encouraging walking and bicycling. HOT promotes human and planetary health by advancing sustainable urban transportation design that makes active transportation more accessible and desirable for adults and children.
HOT will help identify which changes to the built environment have the most impact on active travel and health, giving transportation planners and policy makers the best possible evidence they need to design cities that support public health.
What We Do
- Create and maintain the Health-Oriented Transportation Model to examine the current and potential health benefits of active transportation.
- Partner in the global research program, Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH), funded by the Wellcome Trust, with the aim to make cities healthier and more environmentally sustainable.
- Host monthly HOT Topic seminars to showcase university and community members who work at the intersection of transportation and health.
Read more about Health-Oriented Transportation at GHI
- New model measures the community health impact of bicycling and walking
- The Potential Health and Environmental Benefits of Cycling in the U.S.
- Air Quality and Exercise-Related Health Benefits from Reduced Car Travel in the Midwestern United States
- New model helps cities make the case for bicycling and walking
- Transportation and Health: How will we get there?
- Mindfulness and Climate Change Action
- Ethiopians Look to Madison to Reclaim Bicycle Friendly Culture
