ABSTRACT
Public health officials and epidemiologists usually do not participate in assessments of risks for road deaths and injuries from highways before they are built. In Israel, such assessments were not part of the cost-benefit analysis that was central to the approval of the trans-Israel highway toll road (Route 6). The six-lane trans-Israel highway (320km length north-south) and its 16 east-west connecting roads, if built, will be the largest, most costly and most irreversible environmental modification ever undertaken in Israel. Its investors are advocates of high speed limits to attract more users – cars and commercial vehicles – and thereby maximize revenues.
