Abstract
As air pollution varies significantly in both space and time, commuter exposure may differ considerably depending on the route taken between home to work. This is especially the case for active mode commuters who often have a wider range of route choices available to them compared with those traveling by private motor vehicle or by public transport. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of route choice on air pollution exposure among active commuters, and to estimate, based on modeling, the health benefits able to be achieved from air pollution exposure reductions, modeled across a population, through route optimization. We searched for studies that used portable personal air pollution monitoring equipment during active mode commuting, and reported measurements of air quality on at least two routes, either as a journey to work or to school. The World Health Organization (WHO) model AirQ+ was then exploited to estimate the premature deaths attributable to air pollution according to route choice. Ten publications were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Ultrafine particle counts (UFP), black carbon (BC), and carbon monoxide (CO) were the most commonly measured pollutants in the studies identified. The exposures associated with “high exposure” and “low exposure” routes (categorized based on differences in traffic counts on the roads along the commute route or walking on opposite sides of the road with different levels of traffic traveling in each direction) were found to vary on average by 30 ± 8%, 42 ± 35%, and 55 ± 17% for BC, CO and UFP, respectively. On the basis of modeling, and on the estimated exposures to BC, up to 36 out of 10,000 deaths could be prevented by choosing a low exposure route compared with a high exposure route during active commuting. The results of this study may be useful for both individuals in their commute planning, and also for urban transport planners as impetus for investing in infrastructure to support healthy active mode commuting.
Highlights
Over the past half a century, urbanization and the reliance on passive transport have led to low levels of physical activity across the world (World Health Organization, 2020c), which is a major risk factor for mortality (World Health Organization, 2010)
The main goal of the current study was to review studies investigating the role of route choice on the air pollution exposure of active mode commuters
The results clearly indicate that significant reductions can be obtained by choosing low traffic routes away from traffic congestion
Summary
Over the past half a century, urbanization and the reliance on passive transport (especially private cars) have led to low levels of physical activity across the world (World Health Organization, 2020c), which is a major risk factor for mortality (World Health Organization, 2010). More than 1.4 billion people of the world’s population are deemed to not be sufficiently active to be healthy (Thornton, 2018), with insufficient physical activity contributing to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, and some cancers (Guthold et al, 2018). AT can, to a large extent, provide sufficient physical activity to remain healthy (Shoham et al, 2015) and, if rolled out at scale, worldwide, it could potentially prevent 3.2 million deaths due to inactivity (Guthold et al, 2018). Parents who choose active transportation influence their children to be active, and employees using active transport have been shown to help in encouraging coworkers to change their choice of mode of transport to ones that are more active (Hong, 2018)
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