The Effects of Traffic Related Air Pollution and Proposed Legal Remedies

This paper intends to examine the environmental issues that accompany air pollution generated from traffic related incidents, and the implications that this mass-generated pollution has on air quality, as well as the quality of life of humans exposed chronically to airborne carcinogens. Traffic related air pollution is an environmental problem that is heightened by urban design and population demographics such as urban sprawl, spatial distribution, population density, and infrastructure design. Furthermore, this paper will scrutinize Canadian legislation that regulates traffic related air pollutants, and develop an argument for how to apply legislation going forward. As Cartier, Benmarinha, and Brousselle (2015) identify, the mechanisms of air quality intervention are overlooked, which is necessary for producing effective legislation. The objective of this paper is to gain insight on a quantifiable problem, and to prescribe solutions through legislation, in order to regulate an issue which presents heath complications on a generational level

Information integration in a smart city system—a case study on air pollution removal by green infrastructure through a vehicle smart routing system

peer reviewedOver the past few years, the "smart city" concept has emerged as a new trend to answer challenging issues related to urban development. Transformation of a city system into a smart system is meant to improve the quality of life for its people and their way of living, its environment, economy, transport, and governance. Due to benefits associated with the concept of the smart city and associated implementation challenges, traditional city systems have been undergoing transformation into smart city systems. However, observed approaches of transformation presented disconnected and fragmented city systems that usually hamper the interaction of city subsystems with the efficient and environmentally friendly urban environment. This work emphasizes the systematic view of a city system and proposes a novel method of smart city system integration. The results of our study show that in a smart city environment, where ecosystem services are valorised, air pollution emitted by vehicles can be removed by taking into consideration information related to air pollution reduction. A case study is presented to demonstrate that, with an integrated system, information outputs on travel decisions are different and more valuable. The case study explores the operability of the system, its limitations, and potential future improvements

Air quality mapping and visualisation: An affordable solution based on a vehicle-mounted sensor network

This paper describes a prototype of the ExpoLIS system, which aims at: (1) informing citizens regarding the air quality of their surroundings and how to cope with it (e.g., choosing commuting routes according to a health model); and (2) gathering dense spatiotemporal air quality data to support the empirical work of environmental experts. The system is composed of: (1) an affordable and custom vehicle-mounted sensor network for air quality monitoring; (2) a server to store, process, and map all gathered geo-referenced sensory data; and (3) a set of user-centred visualisation and prediction services tailored for citizens and environmental experts. Experimental validation of each component of the proposed system shows that the current prototype is capable of tracking spatiotemporal air quality changes and of providing users with access to these events via a set of interfaces. The results show evidence of a strong correlation in static situations (R2 of 0.96 for PM2.5) between the proposed low-cost all-weather system and a high-cost equipment with no weather protection. The results also show a weaker correlation (R2 of 0.57 for PM2.5), but still satisfactory, in dynamic settings. In short, this paper presents experimental evidence that supports the claim that the ExpoLIS system is feasible and valuable to both citizens and environmental scientists.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comments on South Fresno Road Widening Project

We are writing this letter on behalf of South Fresno Community Alliance, Katy Taylor, Rosa DePew, and Panfilo Cerrillo to urge you to deny approval of the actions before you today for the Central Avenue Improvements Project (Bid File 3796) (“Project”), including the finding of Categorical Exemptions pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines, the Inter-fund Loan Agreement for $1,880,097, and the award of a construction contract

The Healthiest vs. Greenest Path: Comparing the Effects of Internal and External Costs of Motor Vehicle Pollution on Route Choice

On-road emissions, a dominant source of urban air pollution, damage human health. The 'healthiest path' and the 'greenest path' are proposed as alternative patterns of traffic route assignment to minimize the costs of pollution exposure and emission, respectively. As a proof-of-concept, the framework of a link-based emission cost analysis is built for both internal and external environmental costs and is applied to the road network in the Minneapolis - St. Paul Metropolitan Area based on the EPA MOVES and RLINE models. The healthiest and the greenest paths are skimmed for all work-trip origin-destination pairs and then aggregated into work trip flows to identify the healthier or greener roads in a comparative statics analysis. The estimates show that highways have higher emission concentrations due to higher traffic flow, on which, but that the internal and external emission costs are lower. The emission cost that commuters impose on others greatly exceeds that which they bear. In addition, the greenest path is largely consistent with the traditional shortest path which implies that highways tend to be both greener and shorter (in travel time) for commuters than surface streets. Use of the healthiest path would generate more detours, and higher travel times.US Federal Highway Administration, Accessibility Observator

When Disparities Become Deadly: Spatial Differences in PM2.5 Levels Within the City of Pomona, California

This thesis discusses the disparities in particulate matter concentrations between different neighborhoods in the city of Pomona, California, and explores the historical, political and social factors that have shaped these spatial patterns. I argue that urban growth patterns in Pomona, which are historically marked by race and class segregation as a consequence of past discriminatory housing practices, have led to the disproportionate concentrations of air pollutants in low-income, Latino communities in South Pomona. Due to the absence of a local air quality monitoring system, there is a lack of information about and understanding of how poor air quality may be in part responsible for the high prevalence of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses among South Pomona residents. I carry out a pilot study in which I measure PM2.5 level in different residential locations in Pomona to demonstrate the significant variation in air quality, even at a local level. I find that low-income, Latino communities are exposed to significantly higher levels of PM2.5 than richer, non-Latino white communities, and that the I-10 freeway is a significant source of pollution that could account for the marked differences in PM2.5 between North and South Pomona. I conclude my thesis with regional and local recommendations to address the environmental justice issue of air pollution in Pomona

Protective Systems for Spills of Hazardous Materials, Volume II: Guidelines

DTFH61-85-C-00139This investigation addressed the identification of potential risks from highway transportation of hazardous materials that would result in severe permanent, irreparable or catastrophic consequences, and the identification of practical and implementable physical protective systems to reduce accident incidents and/or mitigate consequences. The primary concern was to reduce or prevent contamination of surface or ground water resources from flows or other movements of materials from accidental spills of hazardous materials. The hazardous spill substances are likely to be directly toxic or indirectly result in reduced quality of receiving waters. This report presents information on a number of protective systems that could be considered for a particular extreme-risk situation. It does not attempt to make the decision to use or not to use these protective systems. It is not a design manual. The decision and design details remain at the discretion of the user. The companion report, FHWA-RD-96-097 (Volume I: Final Report), developed a methodology using a State's panel to identify 11 generalized, ranked extreme risk scenarios and identified protective systems for each. The report concludes that few physical protective systems are available to reduce risk associated with highway transportation of hazardous materials

Transit Pollution Exposure Monitoring using Low-Cost Wearable Sensors

Transit activities are a significant contributor to a person's daily exposure to pollutants. Currently obtaining accurate information about the personal exposure of a commuter is challenging as existing solutions either have a coarse monitoring resolution that omits subtle variations in pollutant concentrations or are laborious and costly to use. We contribute by systematically analysing the feasibility of using wearable low-cost pollution sensors for capturing the total exposure of commuters. Through extensive experiments carried out in the Helsinki metropolitan region, we demonstrate that low-cost sensors can capture the overall exposure with sufficient accuracy, while at the same time providing insights into variations within transport modalities. We also demonstrate that wearable sensors can capture subtle variations caused by differing routes, passenger density, location within a carriage, and other factors. For example, we demonstrate that location within the vehicle carriage can result in up to 25% increase in daily pollution exposure -- a significant difference that existing solutions are unable to capture. Finally, we highlight the practical benefits of low-cost sensors as a pollution monitoring solution by introducing applications that are enabled by low-cost wearable sensors.Peer reviewe