摘要：Health impacts on neighborhood residents from transportation systems can be an environmental justice issue. To assess the effects of transportation planning decisions, including the construction of an intraurban freeway, on residents of the Excelsior neighborhood in southeast San Francisco, PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights), a local grassroots environmental justice organization; the San Francisco Department of Public Health; and the University of California, Berkeley, collaborated on participatory research. We used our findings regarding traffic-related exposures and health hazards in the area to facilitate community education and action to address transportation-related health burdens on neighborhood residents. TRANSPORTATION PLANNING in the 20th century resulted in environmental injustice and significant adverse health impacts. 1 , 2 In the 1960s, the construction of Interstate 280 (I-280) through southeast San Francisco divided the Excelsior neighborhood, 3 increased local and regional freight traffic, and precipitated diverse neighborhood health hazards mediated through effects on air quality, environmental noise, and pedestrian conditions. Today, I-280 brings almost 200 000 vehicles per day within 100 feet of the nearest residences. 4 PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) is a grassroots, membership-based environmental justice organization in San Francisco. With 5 staff members and more than 400 youth and adult members, PODER organizes young people, families, and the elderly to work on local solutions to issues facing southeast San Francisco's predominantly low-income, immigrant communities and communities of color. 5 PODER uses direct action, grassroots advocacy, leadership development, and civic engagement to advocate for urban land reform, community health, youth empowerment, and immigrants' rights. In 2006, concerned with the environmental health and justice implications of transportation planning decisions, PODER asked the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) to collaborate on a participatory study of the impacts of building I-280 and of subsequent local traffic patterns on local residents. In response to community concerns, SFDPH has historically collaborated with community organizations and public and private agency stakeholders to assess the health impacts of land use and transportation plans and policies; the results have informed advocacy for health-promoting decisions. 6 , 7 PODER and SFDPH focused on I-280 and the Excelsior neighborhood after observing a stream of diesel trucks and buses on its narrow, 1-way residential streets ( Figure 1 ). The School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), which had a relationship with SFDPH, joined the collaboration in 2007. The 3 organizations undertook participatory research to understand the environmental health impacts of past transportation planning decisions on community residents; their findings have informed local policymaking to address health inequities. Open in a separate window FIGURE 1 Excelsior project area map, including key traffic routes: 2000 census tract boundary.
