PUBLIC HEALTH, TRANSPORTATION, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank PLAN 579 / SPPH 571. Fall 2014

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1 PUBLIC HEALTH, TRANSPORTATION, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank PLAN 579 / SPPH 571 Course Description Fall 2014 It has been over 2 decades since the first awareness of a looming obesity epidemic. Since that time there has been an ever-increasing focus on the environmental destruction associated with auto dependence coupled with more recent concerns about energy costs and even energy security. Taken collectively, investments in non-motorized transportation coupled with transit may soon emerge as a form of win win health, environmental, and economic policy. At a time when provincial and (to an extent) federal mandates are calling for reductions in GHG emissions associated with vehicular travel, auto dependent approaches to building communities still dominate the urban landscape. Students will learn how non-motorized transportation, access to recreational amenities, and a high quality food environment can improve physical and mental health. Emerging evidence shows ways in which mental health and sense of community are impacted by community design. UBC and the Vancouver region are increasingly interested in ways to promote well-being which encompasses both physical and mental health and perhaps even opportunities for spiritual fulfillment. This class will familiarize students with ways in which the built environment impacts public health more broadly and with specific focus on in factors that impact the choice to walk and bike and how to apply findings from research to specific transportation planning and programming (investment) processes and projects. To meet clean air requirements, promote physical activity and physical and mental health, and to generate more lively / viable urban spaces, it is essential that site planning and urban design principals be re-introduced which encourage walking and biking as viable and even competitive travel options. This course will examine the historical relationship between urban design and demand for non-motorized travel. The class also delves into ways in which community design impacts access to healthy foods and how food environments impact obesity. As noted, community design also impacts mental health, social capital, and sense of community these social dimensions are important to overall quality of life and therefore incorporated into the class. Moreover, the manner by which we design our communities dictates the relative ease of access to opportunities on foot, bike, car, or transit. A focus of the class will be on exploring the synergies between transit as a form of regional mobility and non-motorized transportation as a form of local

2 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 2 accessibility or otherwise stated; how these two modes rely on one another to be viable perhaps this could one day be mode meshing. Transportation networks are often the single most distinct feature that characterizes a place or gives it a sense of uniqueness. For example, the type of a roadway network (e.g. grid vs. cul-desac) used in a new subdivision will affect not only the number of buildable lots or the amount of money required to complete the project, but will also affect the ability for the future inhabitants to walk to shopping, recreational opportunities, or employment. Subdivision layout affects the ability to use public transportation to access these and other activities. Design characteristics of transportation corridors are a key feature of communities and considerable gains have been made in the design and integration of bike and pedestrian modes into major corridors within many cities in North America. The class will review these enhancements and how they can promote public health. Transportation decisions, when coupled with land use or development decisions, have arguably the greatest collective impact on the quality of life of the inhabitants of a community. This becomes particularly the case with elderly and disabled populations. Youth and elderly both spend more of their time near to home and have limitations on travel choices available to them. Research on the relationship between land use and travel choice indicates that the design of the pedestrian environment has a dramatic impact on the ability to reduce polluting forms of travel (single occupant vehicle) and the ability to promote transit. 1 environment found to be most influential include: presence of a continuous sidewalk system; presence of dedicated bicycle facilities; building setbacks; the design, supply, and location of parking; ability to cross streets; buffering from vehicular traffic; size of block faces; lighting; presence of other pedestrians; eyes on the street ; presence of public spaces; levels of employment density; levels of residential density; levels of land use mix; and overall continuity of the street network Factors of the pedestrian 1 LaChapelle and Frank 2009; Dannenberg and Besser 2010

3 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 3 This course will provide students with a framework to assess different urban environments (e.g. Vancouver s West End vs. Burnaby and Richmond typologies) and to be able to discern the level of non-motorized accessibility that is present and the factors that affect the choice and likelihood of travel on foot or by bike. Students will gain a point of reference to evaluate both development and transportation investment proposals (in terms of the level of accessibility provided to transit and non-motorized modes of travel). Based on the readings, lectures, and class projects, students will become more capable of identifying opportunities to increase non-motorized accessibility, and thereby improve the quality of life of urban populations within their work as planners, health care practitioners, geographers, and within other professional endeavors. Student Learning Objectives Students in this class will learn about the physical and social connections between the design of the places where we live, work, and recreate and human health and well-being. More specifically, students will learn: The state of the evidence on the health effects of specific land development and transportation investment decisions; Why health should be a fundamental consideration when making planning decisions; Tools and techniques available to better connect urban planning and public health How to interpret quantitative and qualitative information from the academic literature; How to prepare, organize, and write a clear and concise evidence-based research paper; and How to structure and to present ideas to classmates and to local agency representatives; Class Work Students will conduct two separate independent projects and a group field project for this class - and will also provide a presentation on their final paper. Students will also be evaluated based on class participation noted below in #4. Students will be responsible for the discussion of questions and may be asked to assist the professor with the copying of readings on the class period indicated with their name on the schedule. This may change based on the final listing of students in the class. Each project will be assigned with a more detailed description of the purpose and requirements of the project. Assignments I and II will be no more than 12 pages and assignment III is to be no

4 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 4 more than 30 pages in length and will be a group project. The three assignments are noted in 1-3 below and #4 refers to class participation: 1) Assignment I points A summary of the literature on the ways that the development and design of communities can support and promote a range of public health outcomes. It should review of some basic arguments and associated evidence that supports the need for increased physical activity and less sedentary lifestyles. The review should include some reference to ways in which the built environment influences travel patterns and overall activity levels. This is to be a 12 page paper followed by a list of sources in the form of bibliography. All sources to be referenced and cited. 2) Assignment II 30 points - A review of the unique influences and relationships between health and environmental characteristics for a specific population such as youth, elderly, of a specific ethnicity, or the poor. This is to be a 12 page paper followed by a list of sources in the form of bibliography. All sources to be referenced and cited. 3) Assignment III 30 Points Group Project with the City of Vancouver s CityStudio. Project to be assigned 4) Class Participation points Class participation based on attendance and the submittal of questions from readings. Each student will be required to lead, or co-lead one in-class session where the readings are discussed. Class Schedule: Note: certain readings are being replaced and updated READINGS ARE LISTED UNDER THE WEEK THAT THEY ARE DUE/WILL BE DISCUSSED. Date Guest Lecture Topic Assignment Speaker 1 9/9 Overview of Class None 2 9/16 Historical Relationships Between City Planning and Public Health the Origins of Sprawl 1) Frumkin - Chapter 1 2) Frank - Chapters /23 Understanding the Built Environment 1) Frumkin Chapters 2-3 2) Vlahov et al /30 Assignment 4 Energy Balance Healthy Eating and Active Living #1 Due 1) Frank - Chapters 6-9 2) Caspi, Sorensen, Subramanian, Kawachi. The local food environment and diet: A systematic review. Health & Place, ) Cerin, Frank, Sallis, Saelens, Conway, Leaders:

5 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 5 Chapman, Glanz. From neighborhood design and food options to residents weight status. Appetite, ) Sallis & Glanz. Physical Activity and Food Environments: Solutions to the Obesity Epidemic. Milbank Quarterly, CHOOSE ONE 5 5) Glanz, Sallis, Saelens, Frank. Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S): Development and Evaluation. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) Saelens, Glanz, Sallis, Frank. Nutrition Environment Measures Study in Restaurants (NEMS-R): Development and Evaluation. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, /7 Physical Activity Relationships With the Built Environment 1) Badland, Keam, Witten, Kearns. Examining public open spaces by neighborhood-level walkability and deprivation. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, ) Frank, Schmid, Sallis, Chapman, Saelens. Linking Objectively Measured Physical Activity with Objectively Measured Urban Form: Findings from SMARTRAQ. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) Role of Built Environments in Physical Activity, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease (Sallis et al. 2012) 4) Neighborhood Environment and Psychosocial Correlates of Adults Physical Activity 5) (Saelens et al ahead of print version now available) 6) SANDAG Healthy Community Atlas review for illustrations 6 10/14 Obesity and Other Morbidities 1) Papas, Alberg, Ewing, Helzlsouer, Gary, Klassen. The Built Environment and Obesity. Epidemiologic Reviews, ) Frank, Andresen, Schmid. Obesity Relationships with Community Design, Physical Activity, and Time Spent in Cars. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) Hoehner, Barlow, Allen, Schootman. Commuting Distance, Cardiorespiratory Dale Bracewell

6 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 6 10/21 Fitness, and Metabolic Risk. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) MacDonald, Stokes, Cohen, Kofner, Ridgeway. The Effect of Light Rail Transit on Body Mass Index and Physical Activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) Booth, Creatore, Moineddin, Gozdyra, Weyman, Matheson, Glazier. Unwalkable Neighborhoods, Poverty, and the Risk of Diabetes Among Recent Immigrants to Canada Compared With Long-Term Residents. Diabetes Care, Michael Brauer (to be confirmed) 7 Air Quality and Respiratory Impacts of Sprawl 1) Friedman et al JAMA ) Marshall et al 2009 EHP 3) Hankey, Marshall, Brauer. Health Impacts of the Built Environment: Within-Urban Variability in Physical Inactivity, Air Pollution, and Ischemic Heart Disease Mortality. Environmental Health Perspectives, ) Frumkin - Ch 4 5) Bruegmann s Sprawl: A Compact History : Ch 1, 10, /28 Built Environment & Youth Josh van Loon 1) Frank et al ) Kerr et al ) UD4H USEPA report on safe routes to school 4) Ding, Sallis, Kerr, Lee, Rosenberg. Neighborhood Environment and Physical Activity Among Youth: A Review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, ) Van Loon and Frank /4 11/18 Built Environment Features and Healthy Aging 1) Kerr et al Lit Review JPL ) Frank et al 2010 AJHP 3) Cisneros Part 4 Homes, Part 5 Community Environments Assignment #2 due Community Design and Traffic Safety 1) Frumkin Chapter 6 2) Ewing and Dumbaugh. The Built Environment and Traffic Safety: A Review of Empirical Evidence Journal of Planning Literature, ) Schurman, Cinnamon, Crooks, Hameed. Lon LaClair (to be confirmed)

7 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 7 Pedestrian injury and the built environment: an environmental scan of hotspots. BMC Public Health, /25 Sprawl and Mental Health and Social Capital 1) Frumkin Chapters 8 & 9 2) Putnam Bowling Alone ) Wood et al ) Beatley. Biophilic Urbanism: Inviting Nature Back to Our Communities and Our Lives. William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, /2 Self-Selection and Causation 13 1) Frank - Chapters 10 and 11 2) Cao, Mokhtarian, Handy. Examining the Impacts of Residential Self- Selection on Travel Behaviour: A Focus on Empirical Findings. Transport Reviews, ) Frank et al /9 Towards Healthy Communities for the 21st Century Trans-disciplinary Research and Practice the Assignment case for trans-disciplinary research #3 Due 1) Frumkin - Chapters 10 and 11 2) Saelens et al ) Frank et al 2012 Meeting Times with Professor Available Upon Request Reading Materials will be provided via pdf files to the students drawn from a variety of sources including: Frank, Lawrence, Engelke, Peter, Schmid, Tom Health and Community Design: The Impacts of the Built Environment on Physical Activity. Island Press. Washington, D.C. Frumkin, Howard, Frank, Lawrence, Jackson, Richard Urban Sprawl and Public Health. Island Press. Washington, D.C. Jackson, Kenneth T Crabgrass Frontier. New York. Oxford University Press. Putnam, Robert Bowling Alone. New York. Simon and Schuster Special Needs: Please inform the course instructor as soon as possible if you have special needs and require accommodation of any kind. Please visit for more information on campus resources.

8 Instructor: Dr. Lawrence D. Frank Page 8 Academic Integrity: The University is an environment that fosters learning and the free exchange of ideas while maintaining responsibility and integrity. Violations of academic integrity include but are not limited to plagiarism, cheating, dishonesty, fabrication of information, submitting previously completed work and misusing or destroying school property. Any material or ideas obtained from digital or hard copy sources must be appropriately and fully referenced. Students are expected to uphold all the standards articulated in UBC's academic integrity site. If the instructor finds evidence of a violation of academic integrity the case will be investigated by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and, where appropriate, action will be taken. Disciplinary action may lead to a failing grade or suspension from the University. Supplemental Materials: UBC has numerous research, pedagogical and health resources available to students. These include The centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG), the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the Writing Centre, Student Health Services and student Counselling Services. Please make use of these resources or contact the instructor if you have any questions. Students new to UBC are especially encouraged to become familiar with the broad spectrum of resources that UBC provides.