Building healthy communities for children: the transportation link.

Two concepts are essential to a definition of a healthy community: social justice and ecological sustainability. These principles must be at the heart of creating healthy communities, cities, and regions. Children and young people are an integral part of socially just and ecologically sustainable communities. Transportation and land-use policies are critical tools for shaping healthy communities, cities, and regions. The health impacts of the private automobile and its full cost to society, including public health and environmental damage costs, need to be clearly understood. The developing physiology of children put them at particular risk to medical impacts of automobile emissions and air pollution. The public health impacts of transportation and land-use policies cannot be divorced from the planning and decision-making process. Transit, bicycle, and pedestrian-oriented transportation modes can serve the transportation needs of children and can stimulate land uses more conducive to a healthy social, economic, and environmental quality of life. This article comments on the combined issues of social justice and ecological sustainability for building the best communities for meeting the needs of children and young adults. 3 refs.