Abstract

Transportation decisions have health consequences that are often not incorporated into policy-making processes. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process that can be used to evaluate health effects of transportation policy. We present a rapid HIA, conducted over eight weeks, evaluating health and economic effects of proposed fare increases and service cuts to Boston, Massachusetts’ public transportation system. We used transportation modeling in concert with tools allowing for quantification and monetization of multiple pathways. We estimated health and economic costs of proposed public transportation system changes to be hundreds of millions of dollars per year, exceeding the budget gap the public transportation authority was required to close. Significant health pathways included crashes, air pollution, and physical activity. The HIA enabled stakeholders to advocate for more modest fare increases and service cuts, which were eventually adopted by decision makers. This HIA was among the first to quantify and monetize multiple pathways linking transportation decisions with health and economic outcomes, using approaches that could be applied in different settings. Including health costs in transportation decisions can lead to policy choices with both economic and public health benefits. Document type: Article

Abstract

Fifteen years after the term was coined, the podcast is now consolidated as a sound format with a specific identity within the digital media ecosystem. The practice of podcasting is none other than radio, but one encompassing diverse production on both expressive and thematic levels whose properties (mobility, narrative fragmentation, and the integration of multiple devices) and personalized consumption generate a very different listener attitude compared with traditional radio. After an initial period of independent amateurism strongly conditioned by the technologies available, the podcast has achieved significant global popular recognition, as well as an increasingly important professional dimension thanks to the emergence and spread of new distribution platforms (podcast networks) designed to serve as alternatives to the dominant feeds (such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iVoox, and Spotify) that rely on different catalogs and business models. This investigation identifies, describes, and systematically orders the main management and marketing models for podcasts on these platforms on the basis of a comparative analysis of fourteen of them, two in each of the eight countries in Europe, North America, and Latin America where this format is most widespread: Acast (Sweden); Podimo (Denmark); Binge Audio and Majelan (France); Podimo Spain and Podium Podcast (Spain); PodcastOne and Luminary (USA); Convoy Network and Puentes (Mexico); Posta and Parque Podcast (Argentina); and Pia Podcast and Podway (Colombia). The study measures and compares the offerings of each of the studied platforms using different quantitative and qualitative variables (age, territorial reach, content categories, dominant genres, funding, and consumption). The objective is to start to draw up a global map of the main operators in the podcasting industry, and to identify the production trends and marketing strategies of a format with increasing impact and demand, destined to become the future heir of broadcast radio.