E-ZPass Is a Life-Saver (Literally)

Among its many perks, there’s now evidence that E-ZPass may help save babies. Janet Currie and Reed Walker utilize the introduction of E-ZPass to examine the health effects of traffic congestion on infants. The authors “compare infants born to mothers living near toll plazas to infants born to mothers living near busy roadways but away from toll plazas with the idea that mothers living away from toll plazas did not experience significant reductions in local traffic congestion. [They] also examine differences in the health of infants born to the same mother, but who differ in terms of whether or not they were ‘exposed’ to E-ZPass.” Currie and Walker find that “reductions in traffic congestion generated by E-ZPass reduced the incidence of prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2km of a toll plaza by 6.7-9.1% and 8.5-11.3% respectively, with larger effects for African-Americans, smokers, and those very close to toll plazas.” (HT: Chris Blattman) [%comments]