TTI, University of Texas to study light-rail extension's impact on public health

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and University of Texas Health Science Center will collaborate on a study to examine how light-rail extensions being built by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) will affect the physical activity and travel behavior of adults in Houston.

The National Institutes of Health will fund the five-year study, TTI officials said in a press release. Researchers are particularly interested in understanding the effects on the low-income, ethnically diverse adult population residing along the new light-rail lines, they said.

"Use of public transit requires some degree of activity to travel to and from the stops. This makes the new transit lines a natural candidate to examine individuals' behavior who live nearby," said Ipek Sener, associate transportation researcher and project lead for TTI.

METRO expects to open the new northbound red line in December, and the east end and southeast lines in late 2014.