During a period of booming population growth and opportunity, Hillsborough County's Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) is targeting health as a key focus of their Long-Range Transportation Plan and Vision Zero planning initiatives. The TPO partnered with VHB to perform a countywide health risk assessment, assess relationships between design elements and health outcomes, and help prioritize the implementation and location of complete streets projects.
The first step was establishing a baseline of community health risk through a countywide assessment. VHB used our Healthy Mobility Model, as well as an existing conditions assessment of relevant determinants of health including factors related to the built environment, transportation, environmental exposures, and socioeconomic data. The team then spatially and statistically analyzed the relationships between population chronic disease outcomes and the determinants of health to understand patterns that influence health.
VHB utilized the results of the Health Risk Assessment and statistical analysis to evaluate five study areas. We provided recommendations for complete street treatments and policies to address the prioritization and characteristics of projects in a way that is informed by the localized determinants of health.
