TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of vehicular emissions in urban air quality
T2 - The COVID-19 lockdown experiment
AU - Llaguno-Munitxa, Maider
AU - Bou-Zeid, Elie
N1 - Funding Information:
Project funding was provided by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology under AGRMT.dtd 10–4-19, and the Army Research Office under contract W911NF2010216 (program manager Julia Barzyk).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - While the decrease in air pollutant concentration during the COVID-19 lockdown is well documented, neighborhood-scale and multi-city data have not yet been explored systematically to derive a generalizable quantitative link to the drop in vehicular traffic. To bridge this gap, high spatial resolution air quality and georeferenced traffic datasets were compiled for the city of London during three weeks with significant differences in traffic. The London analysis was then augmented with a meta-analysis of lower-resolution studies from 12 other cities. The results confirm that the improvement in air quality can be partially attributed to the drop of traffic density, and more importantly quantifies the elasticity (0.71 for NO2 & 0.56 for PM2.5) of their linkages. The findings can also inform on the future impacts of the ongoing shift to electric vehicles and micro-mobility on urban air quality.
AB - While the decrease in air pollutant concentration during the COVID-19 lockdown is well documented, neighborhood-scale and multi-city data have not yet been explored systematically to derive a generalizable quantitative link to the drop in vehicular traffic. To bridge this gap, high spatial resolution air quality and georeferenced traffic datasets were compiled for the city of London during three weeks with significant differences in traffic. The London analysis was then augmented with a meta-analysis of lower-resolution studies from 12 other cities. The results confirm that the improvement in air quality can be partially attributed to the drop of traffic density, and more importantly quantifies the elasticity (0.71 for NO2 & 0.56 for PM2.5) of their linkages. The findings can also inform on the future impacts of the ongoing shift to electric vehicles and micro-mobility on urban air quality.
KW - COVID-19 Lockdown
KW - Emerging Mobility
KW - Urban Air Pollution
KW - Urban Vehicular Emissions
KW - Vehicle Electrification
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U2 - 10.1016/j.trd.2022.103580
DO - 10.1016/j.trd.2022.103580
M3 - Article
C2 - 36573137
AN - SCOPUS:85145252913
SN - 1361-9209
VL - 115
JO - Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
JF - Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
M1 - 103580
ER -