Built Environments

Human made features of the physical environment shape all aspects of our health and wellbeing. We study how to alter these features to prevent injury and death

Every aspect of the built environment is modifiable. From small installations—like speed bumps, streetlights, and roadway surfaces—to the overall footprint of a national highway network, we chose collectively how to construct and maintain our physical world. Our research finds that these decisions affect behavior, mental health, and subsequent distributions of disease and injury. And that we can chose to build health into our environments.

  1. Zadey S, Roberts LE, Bushover B, Gobaud AN, Mehranbod CA, Fish CF, Eschliman EL, Gao X, Goin DE, Morrison CN. Effectiveness of Leading Pedestrian Intervals for pedestrian safety in New York City. Nature Cities, in press.

  2. Bushover B, Kim A, Mehranbod CA, Roberts LE, Gobaud AN, Fish C, Gao X, Eschliman EL, Zadey S, Morrison CN. The association between street construction projects and community violence in New York City. Journal of Urban Health, 2025, 102(1):82-91.

  3. Theall K, Wallace J, Tucker A, Wu K, Walker B, Gustat J, Kondo M, Morrison CN, Pealer C, Branas CC, Richardson L. Building a culture of health through the built environment: Impact of a cluster randomized trial remediating vacant and abandoned property on health mindsets. Journal of Urban Health, in press.

  4. Fleckman JM, Ford J, Eisenberg S, Taylor CA, Kondo M, Morrison CN, Branas CC, Drury SS, Theall KP. From neighborhood to household: Connections between neighborhood vacant and abandoned property and family violence. Journal of Urban Health, 2025,102(1):72-81.

  5. Roberts LE, Bushover B, Mehranbod CA, Gobaud AN, Fish C, Eschliman E, Gao X, Zadey S, Morrison CN. Physical environmental roadway interventions and injury and death for vulnerable road users: a natural experiment in New York City. Injury Prevention, in press.

  6. Morrison CN, Thompson J, Kondo M, Beck B. On-road bicycle lane types, roadway characteristics, and risks for bicycle crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2019, 123: 123-131.

  7. Roberts LE, Mehranbod CA, Bushover B, Gobaud AN, Eschliman EL, Fish C, Zadey S, Gao X, Morrison CN. Trends in police complaints and arrests on New York City subways, 2018 to 2023: An interrupted time-series analysis. Injury Epidemiology. 2024;11(1):16.

  8. Morrison CN, Mair CF, Bates L, Duncan DT, Branas CC, Bushover BR, Mehranbod CA, Gobaud AN, Uong S, Forrest S, Roberts L, Rundle AG. Defining spatial epidemiology: A systematic review and re-orientation. Epidemiology. 2024;35(4):p 542-555.

  9. Jacoby SF, Robinson A, Webster J, Holena D, Morrison CN, Richmond TS. The feasibility and acceptability of mobile health monitoring for real-time assessment of traumatic injury outcomes. mHealth, 2021, 7:5.

  10. Morrison CN, Rundle AG, Branas CC, Chihuri S, Mehranbod C, Li G. The unknown denominator problem in population studies of disease frequency. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, 2020, 100361.

  11. Thompson J, Stevenson M, Wijnands JS, Nice K, Aschwanden G, Silver J, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Rayner P, Schofield R, Hariharan R, Morrison CN. A global analysis of urban design types and road transport injury: An image processing study. The Lancet Planetary Health, 2020, 4(1): e32-e42.

  12. Wiebe DJ, Morrison CN. Digital mapping and urban mobility patterns. In S Gonzalez-Bailon, B Foucault-Welles (eds.): Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication. 2020; Oxford University Press: Oxford, United Kingdom.

  13. Morrison CN, Byrnes HF, Miller BA, Kaner E, Wiehe SE, Wiebe DJ. Assessing individuals' exposure to environmental conditions using residence-based, activity location-based, and activity path-based measures. Epidemiology, 2019, 30(20): 166-176.

Study Publications