The Road to Health Care Parity: Transportation Policy and Access to Health Care, a report released by The Leadership Conference Education Fund, demonstrates the connections between transportation policy, community health, and civil rights. It points to the tendency of transportation policies to exacerbate preexisting disparities in access to health care and exposure to environments that often diminish public health. Communities of color and in rural areas, the elderly, children, low-income families and individuals with disabilities are more likely to be unable to drive, and are thus underserved by policies that ignore transportation options outside of the automobile. Automobile dependence often renders health care, nutritious food and exercise opportunities physically and economically inaccessible to many people. Traffic fatalities, of which pedestrians make up a notable proportion, are another direct consequence of automobile dependence that disproportionately affects children, seniors and communities of color.
Furthermore, automobile use contributes to obesity and obesity-related illnesses and to air pollution, which has been linked to asthma, leukemia and heart disease. Asthma, in particular, is more prevalent among minority children. The report concludes with the recommendation that decision-makers focus policies and funding towards expanding the infrastructure of public and active transportation, which might reduce pollution and pedestrian fatalities and improve mobility, thereby reconnecting many underserved Americans with health care.