ABSTRACT
In 2015, a controversial bicycle lane was installed on Paulista Avenue -a thoroughfare in the heart of the megacity of São Paulo with a high rate of motorised vehicles. For the first time, on-bicycle air pollution concentrations were assessed along this lane using black carbon (BC) as an indicator of fossil fuel combustion. We measured BC concentrations with a hand-held microaethalometer at a high temporal resolution, enabling the capture of fine spatial gradients along the route. Although this new link expanded the city's cycling network, our pioneering study showed that BC concentrations were large (mean 8.5⯵gâ¯m-3) with extreme values reaching 24.0⯵gâ¯m-3, comparable to concentrations found in many megacities. In agreement with other studies, we observed that concentrations decreased about 1.6 times on a section of the bicycle lane running through a calmer neighbourhood, which could indicate the potential to safeguard the health of cyclists by installing lanes with greater separation from main roads, such as Paulista Avenue. This pilot work paves the way to more detailed studies aiming to map out the spatial distribution of other traffic-related pollutants across the city's 458-km long bicycle network.
Subject(s)
Air Pollutants/analysis , Bicycling , Environmental Monitoring , Soot/analysis , Air Pollution/analysis , Brazil , Carbon , Cities/statistics & numerical data , Environmental Exposure/analysis , Humans , Motor Vehicles , Pilot Projects , Vehicle Emissions/analysisABSTRACT
Three instrumented bicycles were used to measure black carbon (BC) and PM2.5 concentrations in a midsized city in southern Brazil. The objective of this study was to map the spatial distribution of BC and PM2.5, to identify air pollution hotspots and to assess factors that may affect the concentrations of these pollutants, e.g. traffic volume, number of heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDV), position of traffic signals and street incline. The cyclists collected data in the city centre along streets of different traffic density during nine sampling sessions in the weekday morning and afternoon rush hours, between March 13 and April 28, 2015. The sampling by bicycle covered an area of 2.70 km2, over variable elevation, and travelled a total distance of 215 km. BC and PM2.5 exhibited a large spatial variability on a scale of tens of metres and the concentrations were positively correlated with traffic counts, but exhibited a stronger relationship with the number of HDDV. These results imply that older buses and diesel-powered trucks may be the main driver behind the high pollution levels in the city's inner core. We observed a strong relationship between BC concentrations at junctions managed by traffic signals and the quantity of HDDV. The mean BC concentration was found to be 8.10 µg m-3 near traffic signals located on an inclined street (HDDV > 100 vehicles h-1) compared to traffic signals on flat terrain (6.00 µg m-3), which can be attributed to the higher acceleration required at the start of motion. This pattern was less evident for PM2.5 concentrations.