Harvard study: Modernizing transportation yields $11.1B in health benefits

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A new study from Harvard University had found that plans to transform the transportation sector and reduce air pollution could result in major health benefits for those living in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

The study, conducted by the TRECH Research Project, and led by a team of researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston University, the University of North Carolina, and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, looked at the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI).

TCI is a regional plan developed by a bipartisan group of governors in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia, and the mayor of Washington, D.C. that aims to cut harmful carbon pollution from the transportation sector and transform transportation across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

According to the study, TCI would create $11.1 billion per year in health benefits to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions by 2032 because of reductions in air pollution and save 1,100 lives and prevent 4,700 cases of childhood asthma. Additionally, researchers said, reducing air pollution would result in meaningful progress toward reducing health disparities found in communities.

The group Our Transportation Future, a coalition of environmental, transportation, health, scientific, and business groups, said the study showed that the initiative’s benefits outweigh its costs.

“The preliminary results from the Harvard School of Public Health and other leading institutions clearly show the health benefits of improving our transportation system and underscores the fact that the potential benefits of implementing the Transportation and Climate Initiative’s cap-and-invest policy significantly outweigh the costs,” the group said. “This new Harvard study shows that the health benefits of TCI will likely be greatest in areas where pollution is concentrated. For far too long, the costs of harmful air pollution from fossil fuel-powered cars, trucks, and buses has been disproportionately shouldered by the most vulnerable communities. According to a 2019 Union of Concerned Scientists study, ‘on average, communities of color in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic breathe 66 percent more air pollution from vehicles than white residents’. It is critical that a final TCI program prioritize investments in clean air and clean transportation solutions in these communities — and the preliminary results show those investments will make a difference.”