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Vehicular Traffic in Urban Areas: Health Burden and Influence of Sustainable Urban Planning and Mobility

Authors :
Cristina Reche
Aurelio Tobias
Mar Viana
Source :
Atmosphere, Vol 13, Iss 4, p 598 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Vehicular traffic is one of the major sources of air pollution in European cities. This work aims to understand which characteristics of the urban environment could influence mobility-related air pollution, quantify the health impacts of exposure to traffic-derived PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations, and assess the potential health benefits expected from traffic interventions. The health benefits modeled are intended to provide a set of comparable data to support decision-makers and encourage informed decision-making to design healthier cities. Targeting a large geographical coverage, 12 European cities from 9 countries were comparatively assessed in terms of mean daily traffic volume/area, the number of public transport stops/area, and the percentage of green and outdoor leisure areas, among other urban indicators. This was implemented using an open-source data mining tool, which was seen as a useful engine to identify potential strategies to improve air quality. The comparison of urban indicators in the selected cities evidenced two trends: (a) cities with the most heterogeneous distribution of public transport stops, as an indicator of poor accessibility, are also those with the lowest proportion of km dedicated to cycleways and footways, highlighting the need in these cities for more sustainable mobility management; and (b) the percentage of green and outdoor leisure areas may influence the share of journeys by bicycle, pointing out that promoting the perception of green routes is relevant to enhance the potential of active transport modes. Socioeconomic factors can be key determinants of the urban indicators and would need further consideration. For the health impact assessment (HIA), two baseline scenarios were evaluated and compared. One is based on mean annual traffic contributions to PM2.5 concentrations in each target city (ranging between 1.9 and 13 µg/m3), obtained from the literature, and the second is grounded on mean annual NO2 concentrations at all available traffic and urban background stations within each city (17.2–83.5 µg/m3), obtained from the European Environment Agency database. The intervention scenarios modeled were designed based on traffic mitigation strategies in the literature, and set to ranges of 6–50% in traffic-derived PM2.5 concentrations and of 4–12.5% in NO2 concentrations. These scenarios could result in only a 1.7% (0.6–4%) reduction in premature mortality due to exposure to traffic-derived PM2.5, and 1.0% (0.4–2%) due to exposure to NO2, as the mean for all the cities. This suggests that more ambitious pollution abatement strategies should be targeted.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20734433
Volume :
13
Issue :
4
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Atmosphere
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.8f93162512c1415892b67e8afd68f08a
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13040598