Road infrastructure and traffic can reduce social cohesion by cutting people off from social connections. The research separates mental health impacts from traffic-related air pollution, which has known links to brain health outcomes. The work is motivated by evidence that green space supports social cohesion, exercise, and mental health, alongside uncertainty about how high volumes of fast-moving vehicles affect mental health when they occupy open urban space. The analysis considers a scenario where noise and air pollution remain similar while space use changes, to assess whether severance from connections contributes to mental health outcomes. The findings connect transportation severance to increased mental health-related hospital visits.
"I think it's so interesting that you all kind of lasered in on that specific idea of, like, traffic severance or transportation severance because you mentioned, the research and the findings are independent of the traffic-related air pollution, which has been shown to have impacts on things like Alzheimer's and dementia and other brain health things. I wonder what made you look past the air quality impacts and laser in on this specific thing that was the traffic and the connections that people are severed from."
"On one side, we have scientific evidence on space used in a way that benefits social cohesion and also exercise, and also that this green space benefits mental health as well. You know, like things like parks or green space. But we don't have awareness or understanding of what happens on the other side of the range of how we use the space in the city, right? Like, there is a lack of understanding of if we occupy all that open space with, again, huge volumes moving very fast of these machines, is that good or bad for our mental health?"
"So yeah, it was, as Marianthi said, from my perspective at least, looking beyond air pollution and imagining if the city will have still the same levels of noise and air pollution but had another use of space, would it be more healthy or not?"
Read at Streetsblog USA
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