Abstract
This study investigated 2-wheeler exposures to CO and PM along six standardized arterial main road stretches in Bangalore city in India during morning peak (9:00-11:00) and afternoon non-peak hours (13:00-15:00) using personal samplers. Background levels on a local street carrying no traffic and away from main roads were also monitored to determine the actual contributions of vehicular traffic to exposure. Road stretches were selected to compare exposures on two types of routes - inner arterials and outer arterials with different built form characteristics. Results indicate that average background PM and CO concentrations were much lower than the respective averages of the 2-wheeler exposures as expected. While PM exposures for inner arterials were higher than for outer arterials (p=0.007), differences were much larger for CO (p<0.001). Since the average run speeds were comparable for the stretches, the variations in PM and CO could be attributed to different vehicular compositions and built form characteristics of the stretches, but this needs to be verified through further investigation. PM exposures during nonpeaks were lower than during morning peaks (p=0.02). However, CO exposures were not very different between non-peak hours and morning peak hours (p=0.138) despite comparable average run speeds and shows that even lower traffic volumes during non-peak hours result in high exposures. Results of various bivariate models indicate that average run speed is a good predictor of CO exposures (R=0.56) but is only a minor predictor of PM exposures (R=0.18) in Bangalore.
Highlights
Bangalore is the fifth largest metropolitan region in India and is the capital of the State of Karnataka
The 30 s readings of CO and PM10 exposures for one stretch are shown in Fig. (2) below
This study provides evidence that background levels of CO and PM10 are significantly lower than levels while commuting
Summary
According to the Census of India, the city’s population has grown from 2.92 million in 1981 to 8.43 million in 2011. The rapid growth of Bangalore was not anticipated and the city has not been able to keep up with the demands for water, electricity and other infrastructure. This is very evident in the public transportation system, which depends entirely on the city’s roads and has not been able to satisfy the needs of the city. The vehicular population has increased exponentially from about 0.15 million registered motor vehicles in 1981 to about 3.13 million in 2008 [1].
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