# REACH Center Research Project 1

> **NIH NIH P20** · GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $227,449

## Abstract

SUMMARY – RESEARCH PROJECT 1: Transportation, Health, and Equity: A Community-Centered
Study of Road Pricing in Washington, D.C.
On-road vehicle emissions are the top contributor to air pollution-related health burdens in Washington, District
of Columbia, where they are associated with over 50% of NO2-attributable asthma cases and 23% of air
pollution-attributable premature deaths. As in other cities, these health burdens are inequitably distributed
largely due to historical and ongoing racially discriminatory planning: PM2.5-attributable morbidity and mortality
are five times higher in most impacted areas than in the least impacted areas. District leaders are pursuing
policies to address these issues. Road pricing (alternatively called congestion pricing) is a climate change
mitigation strategy being considered in cities around the world as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions
from the transportation sector, improve air quality, reduce congestion and commuting times, shift travel from
vehicles to public transit and other active transport modes, and improve transportation equity. These policies
will likely achieve their intended goals along and near the targeted roads, for example, but it remains unclear
whether there will be unintended consequences such as displacing emissions, air quality impacts, and adverse
health outcomes outside of the regulated zone. The primary objective of this study is to quantify health and
equity implications associated with road pricing schemes under consideration in the Washington, District of
Columbia, area. Our aims are to: (1) Identify road pricing strategies to achieve GHG emissions reduction
targets in the District by leveraging community collaborator input; (2) Quantify neighborhood-level NO2, PM2.5,
and O3 exposure and health effect changes from road pricing through the development of a novel model
framework integrating fine-scale transportation modeling, air quality modeling, and population health data; and
(3) Assess the equity implications of the proposed road pricing strategies by comparing NO2, PM2.5, and O3
exposure and attributable morbidity and mortality for different population subgroups using spatially-resolved
demographic data and race- and ethnicity-specific relative risk estimates. This study will quantify traffic, air
quality, health, and environmental justice benefits anticipated from road pricing in the District. The primary
significance of this project over existing literature is estimating health and equity benefits of proposed road
pricing schemes using fine scale, state-of-the-science transportation, air quality, and health outcomes models.
This significance builds directly from the REACH Center theme of using big data to explore climate solutions
that advance health and environmental justice, by leveraging the power of novel geospatial datasets and
research co-generation with governmental and non-governmental partners. Critically, we have developed the
research plan through community a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10982793
- **Project number:** 1P20ES036775-01
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lucas Richard Fath Henneman
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $227,449
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-19 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10982793

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10982793, REACH Center Research Project 1 (1P20ES036775-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10982793. Licensed CC0.

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