Minnesota Department of Transportation

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Research & Innovation

Need statements

NS733: Navigating healthier community outcomes with transportation corridor rankings

Problem

Risk rankings and other measurement tools like level of service are trusted approaches already utilized by MnDOT and other transportation agencies to ensure projects are not just reactive and that systematic improvements are made over time. This research proposal will explore how to develop a similar, comprehensive system for assigning public health ratings to Minnesota trunk highway corridors. Ratings would be based on various factors, encompassing traditional and non-traditional transportation data such as community context, safety, health inequities, physical activity, chronic disease, air quality, urban heat island, green infrastructure, and destination access. The project will also identify how to integrate the health ratings into state transportation decision-making efforts, such as project selection criteria, project prioritization, or mitigation guidance.

Objective

This proposal acknowledges that connection between transportation and public health is indisputable — as a science, discipline, and matter of policy. Everyone travels and how we’re able to travel has impacts that go far beyond the simple and routine act of going from one place to another. Yet integrating public health data into transportation decision-making through a quantifiable and understandable process is a perennial challenge.

What is the best methodology for evaluating the health status of communities in the context of transportation planning? What indicators and data should be prioritized? How can a health evaluation methodology fit into existing state transportation decision-making processes? What is the best way to communicate such a methodology to partners and the public? These questions will serve as the basis for identifying the best indicators to understand a holistic picture of the health of community members in transportation context, especially those who have been underserved by traditional data approaches. This will support healthier and more equitable community outcomes while also offering a model for other transportation and public health agencies to learn from.

Previous research

This project will build upon previous MnDOT and industry research related to livability, public health, complete streets, safe system approach, transportation equity, and corridor planning by analyzing existing tools and translating promising practices into a proposed methodology for the agency to operationalize.

  1. Previous MnDOT/LLRB funded research includes the TRS 2201: The Health and Transportation Nexus, May 2022
  2. Previous industry research includes:
    1. Incorporating Public Health into Transportation Decision-Making, San Jose State University, 2023
    2. Integrating Public Health & Equity into Transportation Planning for Federal Land Management Agencies, FHWA, 2022
    3. A Research Roadmap for Transportation and Public Health, NCHRP, 2019
  3. Current available tools to evaluate include:
    1. Healthy Mobility Model, VHB – a tool that helps planners conduct health risk assessments and evaluate the relationships between health outcomes and the social and environmental determinants of health in communities.
    2. Transportation and Health Tool, U.S. DOT and CDC - provides data on a set of transportation and public health indicators that describe how the transportation environment affects safety, active transportation, air quality, and connectivity to destinations.
    3. Integrated Transport and Health Impact Model (TIHIM) – planning tool to assess the health impacts of updates to regional transportation plans and regional transportation projects and programs.
  4. Also see attached literature review, in particular:
    1. Health in Transportation Corridor Planning Framework, FHWA, Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty, 2021
    2. Blind Spots: How Unhealthy Corridors Harm Communities and How to Fix Them, Urban Land Institute and Smart Growth America, 2019
    3. Understanding and Improving Arterial Roads to Support Public Health and Transportation Goals, American Public Health Association, 2017
    4. Building Healthy Corridors: Transforming Urban and Suburban Arterials into Thriving Places, Urban Land Institute, 2016

Expected outcomes

  • New or improved manual, handbook, guidelines, or training
  • New or improved business practices, procedure, or process

Expected benefits

The numbers 1 and 2 indicate whether the source of the benefit measurement is from: 

  1. A specific research task in your project that supports measuring this particular benefit, or
  2. Implementation of the research findings (anticipating positive results)
  • Safety: (2)
    • This project would contribute to safety benefits by identifying public health metrics for project selection, prioritization and delivery, along with a process for integrating those metrics in a consistent way. This would support the planning and delivery of projects that holistically advance agency corridor planning, Safe System Approach, Complete Streets, and transportation equity at a system level. This benefit could be tracked quantitatively through the Complete Streets project reporting platform and shared annually through the internal Complete Streets reporting process.
  • Other: (1)
    • This project would develop a consistent set of system-wide public health metrics to help MnDOT plan and develop future projects that are more responsive to community needs and increase transportation benefits provided to disadvantaged and overburdened communities.

Technical advisory panel

  • Gloria Jeff, MnDOT
  • Fay Simer, MnDOT
  • Jake Rueter, MnDOT
  • Kadence Kushnir, MnDOT
  • David Elvin, MnDOT
  • Natalie Reis, MnDOT
  • Lisa Austin, MnDOT
  • Tom Cruikshank, MnDOT
  • Duane Hill, MnDOT
  • Bridget Miller, MnDOT
  • Jessie Carr, MDH
  • Crystal Myslajek, MDH
  • Denise Engen, Hennepin County
  • Bethany Brandt-Sargent, Metropolitan Council
  • Heidi Schallberg, Metropolitan Council
  • Michael Maddox, Metro COG (Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments)

Supplemental Information

  1. What is the current process for ranking corridors and selecting projects work?
    1. See the MnDOT project selection policy as a start. MnDOT is also working on a new Corridor Planning initiative to develop a thorough approach to analyzing transportation needs in a specific location that this research project will need to align with.
  2. Does MnDOT have a definition of public health?
    1. MnDOT does not have a definition of public health. We are framing our understanding of public health through the framework provided in the Health and Transportation Nexus research project.
  3. Will this project result in rankings by MnDOT District?
    1. The allocation of rankings will need to be determined in consultation with the research project TAP. The ranking structure will need to consider and align with other MnDOT tools and processes.
  4. Is a standalone tool expected of this project?
    1. This will need to be determined in consultation with the research project TAP.
  5. Will there be public health partners involved in the project TAP?
    1. Public health partners from the Minnesota Department of Health and from Hennepin County will be invited to participate on the TAP.