Cost-Effectiveness of Capping Freeways for Use as Parks: The New York Cross-Bronx Expressway Case Study

Mitigating air and noise pollution through highway capping: The Bundang-Suseo Highway Cap Project case study

Highways, while vital for transportation, often lead to heightened air and noise pollution, adversely affecting nearby communities. This study delves into the effectiveness of highway capping, a sustainable urban development strategy, in addressing these environmental challenges, with a specific focus on the Bundang-Suseo Highway in South Korea. This study employed a multifaceted approach, incorporating on-road monitoring, in situ measurements, and vertical assessments using UAVs. Following the cap's installation, the area experienced more stable pollutant levels, marking a notable shift from the previously fluctuating conditions heavily influenced by the highway. In-depth in situ monitoring near the cap revealed significant reductions in noise and pollutants like UFP and BC. Furthermore, UAV monitoring captured these changes in pollutant levels at different altitudes. Notably, the installation of the highway cap led to increased PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 levels at ground level, but a decrease above the cap, emphasizing the critical importance of intentional highway cap design in enhancing urban air quality and reducing exposure to harmful pollutants. This research yields invaluable insights for urban planners, health authorities, and policymakers, aiding the precise identification of pollution-prone areas and advocating for improved highway cap design to enhance urban environments.

Futureproofing Social Support Policies for Population Health

Policy Points In America, wages appear to be growing relative to purchasing power over time. However, while the ability to purchase consumer goods has indeed improved, the cost of basic survival needs such as health care and education has increased faster than wages have grown. America's weakening social policy landscape has led to a massive socioeconomic rupture in which the middle class is disappearing, such that most Americans now cannot afford basic survival needs, such as education and health insurance. Social policies strive to rebalance societal resources from socioeconomically advantaged groups to those in need. Education and health insurance benefits have been experimentally proven to also improve health and longevity. The biological pathways through which they work are also understood.

The Cost-Effectiveness of Bike Share Expansion to Low-Income Communities in New York City

The "Citi Bike" bike share program in New York City is the largest bike share program in the USA. We ask whether expanding this program to lower-income communities is cost-effective means of encouraging exercise and reducing pollution in New York City. We built a stochastic Markov model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the Citi Bike expansion program, an effort to extend bike share to areas with higher costs and risks over a 10-year time horizon. We used one-way sensitivity analyses and Monte Carlo simulation to test the model uncertainty. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the Citi Bike expansion program relative to the current program (status quo) was $7869/quality-adjusted life year gained. The Citi Bike expansion program in New York City offers good value relative to most health interventions.