Additionally these emergency department visits for asthma are much more frequent \u2014 nearly five times higher \u2014 among Black children aged 2-17 years compared to white children. When we build projects intended to increase driving, we often fail to account for the costs of dealing with these health impacts, especially for communities located near highways.![\"Traffic\"](\"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/traffic-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Not only does how we design highway projects impact our health, it also impacts our safety.<\/p>\n
Last year there were 571 people, including 159 pedestrians or cyclists, who were tragically killed in a car crash in Maryland.<\/strong><\/h3>\nEncouraging more driving and car-dependent infrastructure increases the risk of such crashes. When a four-lane highway becomes a six-lane highway, a pedestrian has to cross a wider distance with more cars, more noise and more car exhaust.<\/p>\n
Luckily, policies like the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act (TCA)<\/a> that will be introduced again next year by Del. Mark Edelson (D-Baltimore City) and Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County) can help combat these issues. The Transportation and Climate Alignment would require that Maryland mitigate the harmful pollution from new highway expansion projects by investing in transit, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure as part of the project itself, or prioritize these investments in the area where the project is located.<\/p>\nSpending time in Bruges, Belgium, I recently got to see firsthand what a car-free downtown looks like \u2013 vibrant with people walking and biking everywhere. My daughter and I took a city shuttle, a train, the subway, bikes and a bus, only opting for cars (which were electric) twice.<\/p>\n
If we focus on helping people get to destinations safely and conveniently rather than cars moving as quickly as possible, then we can start to solve the real problem \u2013 whether that is a jobs-to-housing imbalance or lack of amenities (grocery stores, parks, health care, etc.) near where people live.<\/p>\n
All communities benefit from infrastructure that helps people walk, bike or take transit. Each Maryland county (including Baltimore City) annually sends a \u201cpriority letter\u201d of key projects to fund. Nearly every county has been requesting transit, bike or pedestrian options \u2013 whether that is a Southern Maryland Rapid Transit project in Charles County or the implementation of a first fixed-route transit service in Garrett County.<\/p>\n
These investments boost our physical and mental health, making it easier to get physical activity and improving access to nature and social activities. They are also good for our pocketbooks given that gas prices and car maintenance cost people thousands of dollars each year. In fact, transportation is the second-largest household cost after the cost of housing in Maryland.<\/p>\n
We can plan better and healthier by building infrastructure and policies. Legislation like the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act<\/a> help steer us in the right direction.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_team_member name=”Megan Weil Latshaw, PhD, MHS” image_url=”https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/shot-scaled-e1765579824558-240×300.jpg” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Megan Weil Latshaw, PhD, MHS, serves as director of the master’s degree programs in the Department of Environmental Health & Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and as co-director for the Education Program of the Institute for Planetary Health. She teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Opinions expressed are her own and do not represent the university.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Maryland Matters, 2025
v1.98.3<\/p>\n
Maryland Matters<\/a> is a trusted nonprofit and nonpartisan news site. We are not the arm of a profit-seeking corporation. Nor do we have a paywall \u2014 we want to keep our work open to as many people as possible. So we rely on the generosity of individuals and foundations to fund our work.<\/p>\nMaryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, the nation\u2019s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Megan Weil Latshaw December 12, 2025 7:24 pm. Transit planning focuses too much on moving more cars on more roads, but there are hidden costs, writes Megan Weil Latshaw, who says a broad-based approach to planning can help everyone.They affect how we plan our day, what time we leave our homes, what time we\u2019ll… Lesen Sie weiter The way we plan highway projects overlooks health. We can fix it.<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080"},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6742"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6756,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions\/6756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Spending time in Bruges, Belgium, I recently got to see firsthand what a car-free downtown looks like \u2013 vibrant with people walking and biking everywhere. My daughter and I took a city shuttle, a train, the subway, bikes and a bus, only opting for cars (which were electric) twice.<\/p>\n
If we focus on helping people get to destinations safely and conveniently rather than cars moving as quickly as possible, then we can start to solve the real problem \u2013 whether that is a jobs-to-housing imbalance or lack of amenities (grocery stores, parks, health care, etc.) near where people live.<\/p>\n
All communities benefit from infrastructure that helps people walk, bike or take transit. Each Maryland county (including Baltimore City) annually sends a \u201cpriority letter\u201d of key projects to fund. Nearly every county has been requesting transit, bike or pedestrian options \u2013 whether that is a Southern Maryland Rapid Transit project in Charles County or the implementation of a first fixed-route transit service in Garrett County.<\/p>\n
These investments boost our physical and mental health, making it easier to get physical activity and improving access to nature and social activities. They are also good for our pocketbooks given that gas prices and car maintenance cost people thousands of dollars each year. In fact, transportation is the second-largest household cost after the cost of housing in Maryland.<\/p>\n
We can plan better and healthier by building infrastructure and policies. Legislation like the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act<\/a> help steer us in the right direction.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_team_member name=”Megan Weil Latshaw, PhD, MHS” image_url=”https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/shot-scaled-e1765579824558-240×300.jpg” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Megan Weil Latshaw, PhD, MHS, serves as director of the master’s degree programs in the Department of Environmental Health & Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and as co-director for the Education Program of the Institute for Planetary Health. She teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Opinions expressed are her own and do not represent the university.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u00a9 Maryland Matters, 2025 Maryland Matters<\/a> is a trusted nonprofit and nonpartisan news site. We are not the arm of a profit-seeking corporation. Nor do we have a paywall \u2014 we want to keep our work open to as many people as possible. So we rely on the generosity of individuals and foundations to fund our work.<\/p>\n Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, the nation\u2019s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Megan Weil Latshaw December 12, 2025 7:24 pm. Transit planning focuses too much on moving more cars on more roads, but there are hidden costs, writes Megan Weil Latshaw, who says a broad-based approach to planning can help everyone.They affect how we plan our day, what time we leave our homes, what time we\u2019ll… Lesen Sie weiter The way we plan highway projects overlooks health. We can fix it.<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080"},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6742"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6756,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions\/6756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talbotthrive.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
v1.98.3<\/p>\n