A Health Impact Assessment of Transit-Oriented Development at the Quitman Light Rail Station in Houston, Texas

This study uses a specialized tool—a health impact assessment, or HIA—to evaluate the health impacts of transit-oriented development (TOD) in a neighborhood surrounding a soon-to-be-completed light rail station in Houston, Texas. The station we chose for this pilot assessment is the Quitman station, which is located just north of downtown Houston, at the intersection of Quitman and North Main streets, in a predominately low-income Latino neighborhood called Northside Village. We used the HIA process, which is described in detail in the full report, to assess key health-related TOD indicators—walkability, affordable housing, parks and trails, and mixed-use development—contained in four redevelopment initiatives that have been advanced by different stakeholders for this community.