Abstract
Although many studies have revealed that both air quality and walking activity are dominant contributors to public health, little is known about the relationship between them. Moreover, previous studies on this subject have given little consideration to the day-to-day atmospheric conditions and floating populations of surrounding areas even though most pedestrian count surveys are not conducted on a single day. Against this backdrop, using the 2015 Pedestrian Volume Survey data and quasi-real-time weather, air quality, and transit ridership data in Seoul, this study investigates the relationship between particulate matter (PM)10 and pedestrian street volumes empirically. The regression results suggest that PM10 concentration determines people’s intention to walk and affects the volume of street-level pedestrians. The three regression models, which adopted different spatial aggregation units of air quality, demonstrated that PM10 elasticity of pedestrian volume is the largest in the borough-level (the smallest spatial unit of air quality alert) model. This means that people react to the most accurate information they can access, implying that air quality information should be provided in smaller spatial units for public health. Thus, strengthening air quality warning standards of PM is an effective measure for enhancing public health.
Highlights
The environment is undoubtedly one of the key components of livability [1], and in particular, air quality directly determines citizens’ quality of life by affecting individual health and outdoor activities [2]
By using data from the 2015 Pedestrian Volume Survey (PVS) and air quality monitoring stations (AQMSs) in Seoul, this study aims to offer empirical evidence regarding the impacts of particulate matter (PM) on the pedestrian volume on the streets
27, PM10 concentration was volatile to some extent
Summary
The environment is undoubtedly one of the key components of livability [1], and in particular, air quality directly determines citizens’ quality of life by affecting individual health and outdoor activities [2]. Since the Industrial Revolution, the use of fossil fuels and the supply of automobiles have rapidly increased, and as a result, several advanced cities like London and Los Angeles have suffered from severe air pollution during the 1940s and 1950s [3]. In the U.S, smog in Los Angeles gave rise to the enactment of the Air Pollution Control Act in 1955. South Korea has not avoided this problem. Air quality has consistently improved, in 2015, the yearly average PM2.5 concentration in South Korea was 29 μg m−3 , which was the second-highest among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries [4].
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