Assessing the effects of non-local traffic restriction policy on urban air quality

Abstract

Traffic restriction policy (TRP) is common practice to alleviate urban congestion and air pollution. However, effects of TRP for non-local vehicles and elevated expressways on local and regional air quality are understudied. Using air pollutant data collected by ground-based national and roadside environmental monitoring stations and field measurements, comparative research design and regression discontinuity analysis were performed to investigate the local and regional variations in air pollutant concentrations with and without the TRP. Results indicate that traffic restriction significantly decreased the local and regional concentration levels of primary gaseous pollutants (e.g., NOX and CO), particularly under more stringent TRP during China International Import Expo, which also brought an ozone increase due to the reduced effect of NOX titration. However, the TRP only exhibited limited impacts on mitigating regional particulate pollution. These findings suggest that the air quality improvements due to the non-local TRP highly depend on the types of pollutants and the spatial locations.