Physical
Environment/Transport
The Physical Environment is the built
and natural environment in which we live, including open and public
spaces.
The physical environment includes the following targets for intervention:
Housing. Affordable, adequate local housing
located within viable communities near jobs provides a buffer to
other social determinants of health.
Environmental toxins in the
air, soil, water and in building structures and materials have a known
impact on health. Particulate air pollution can trigger asthmatic
reactions as well as other illnesses. The poor are exposed disproportionately
to many environmental toxins.
Transport, which the
Work Group identified as a priority area within this domain.
Transport. Planning decisions
made at the regional, state and federal levels have designated the
auto
as the predominant
mode
of
local transportation in the Bay Area, as well as most other
urbanized areas in the United States. This political choice resulted
in cities
designed around roadways, and created suburbs and sprawl.
Auto transportation tends to spread populations
out from urbanized settings, fragmenting communities and shifting the
tax base outwards. Social inequalities are amplified by land use and
tax inequity. The city extends outwards into low density suburbs, transforming
and degrading the surrounding natural landscape. Local dependence on
the car contributes to increased levels of air pollution, reduced physical
activity and the loss of community. The motor vehicle transportation
network pits pedestrians and bicyclists against automobiles and trucks
to create neighborhood streets that are physically unsafe.
