Daily Commute Research Articles

Spatial spread of COVID-19 outbreak in Italy using multiscale kinetic transport equations with uncertainty.

In this paper we introduce a space-dependent multiscale model to describe the spatial spread of an infectious disease under uncertain data with particular interest in simulating the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. While virus transmission is ruled by a SEIAR type compartmental model, within our approach the population is given by a sum of commuters moving on a extra-urban scale and non commuters interacting only on the smaller urban scale. A transport dynamics of the commuter population at large spatial scales, based on kinetic equations, is coupled with a diffusion model for non commuters at the urban scale. Thanks to a suitable scaling limit, the kinetic transport model used to describe the dynamics of commuters, within a given urban area coincides with the diffusion equations that characterize the movement of non-commuting individuals. Because of the high uncertainty in the data reported in the early phase of the epidemic, the presence of random inputs in both the initial data and the epidemic parameters is included in the model. A robust numerical method is designed to deal with the presence of multiple scales and the uncertainty quantification process. In our simulations, we considered a realistic geographical domain, describing the Lombardy region, in which the size of the cities, the number of infected individuals, the average number of daily commuters moving from one city to another, and the epidemic aspects are taken into account through a calibration of the model parameters based on the actual available data. The results show that the model is able to describe correctly the main features of the spatial expansion of the first wave of COVID-19 in northern Italy.

Exposures to multiple air pollutants while commuting: Evidence from Zhengzhou, China

Daily commutes can contribute disproportionately to overall daily exposure to urban air pollutant concentrations. It is important to understand factors that contribute to the variability of exposures during commutes to develop strategies to mitigate exposure. We used low-cost Fairsense PMS1003 sensors to monitor exposure to multiple air pollutants: PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, O3 and NO2, across four dominant transport modes: bike, taxi, subway and bus, on prescribed commuting routes covering a wide range of environments representative of downtown Zhengzhou during the morning and evening rush hours. Zhengzhou is a city in China that faces severe air quality challenges.We compared exposures in the different modes and evaluated factors that contributed to variability in exposure to the different pollutants during commute trips. There were statistically significant differences in exposures across commuting modes for most pollutants. Commuting in air-conditioned taxis had the lowest exposure to PM, but highest exposures to some primary gaseous pollutants (SO2 and CO).In a multivariate analysis, the travel mode generally explained the greatest variability in pollutant exposure, in comparison to route, time of day (morning/evening), and background pollutant concentrations. When breathing rate was taken into account to compute pollutant doses, cycling emerged as the commuting mode with the highest inhaled dose.

Ridesharing in urban areas: multi-objective optimisation approach for ride-matching and routeing with commuters’ dynamic mode choice

The daily home-office commute of millions of people in crowded cities strains air quality and increases travel time, which motivates the generation of ridesharing. Ridesharing offers many benefits, such as reducing travel costs, congestion, and pollution. Commuter ridesharing is an important theme of urban transportation. This paper studies a ridesharing problem aiming at enlarging the ridesharing market at a limited cost, which enlighten the decision-making problem in city logistics. We establish a novel multi-objective optimisation model based on cumulative prospect theory (CPT) to address the preferred travel mode of commuters. The commuters’ perceived value influences their choice of travel mode. Meanwhile, the perceived value changes with the commuters’ experience of travel mode choice. We give the NP-hardness proof of the ridesharing scheduling problem and develop a heuristic algorithm to solve it in a small-scale scenario. For large-scale problems, a hybrid VNS-NSGAII algorithm combining variable neighbourhood search (VNS) with NSGAII (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II) is proposed to generate an approximate optimal Pareto front. A series of computational experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm based on the actual traffic data in Beijing, China.

Not gendered… but different from each other? A structural equation model for explaining risky road behaviors of female and male pedestrians

As alternative transportation is getting more and more fashionable, and more people worldwide are "shifting" to walking trips, even for their daily commuting, traffic crashes suffered by pedestrians are still a great concern for road safety and public health researchers and practitioners. In this regard, risky or "aberrant" road behaviors have emerged, during the last few years, as a key issue to be considered for crash prevention. Nevertheless, the idea of a "generic pedestrian" is getting re-evaluated, and analyzing key features, such as gender, seems to be crucial for understanding pedestrians' performance and safety outcomes. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine the effect of gender on pedestrians' both deliberate (traffic violations) and undeliberate (errors) risky walking behaviors, considering a set of theoretically based demographic and psychosocial variables as their potential predictors. MethodFor this cross-sectional study, data from 1070 Spanish pedestrians (60 % females and 40 % males, aged between 16 and 79) from the 17 regions of Spain, responding to an electronic questionnaire, were analyzed through a multi-group structural equation modeling (MGSEM) approach. ResultsAlthough age, handheld device-interaction, and sensation-seeking seem to have a similar effect on the errors and violations reported by both genders (similarities), factors such as risk perception, educational level and the misbehaviors observed in other road users are significant predictors only in the case of male pedestrians. On the other hand, road distractions have been shown to play a significant role in females' errors and violations, while males' road distractions seem to only affect their involuntary risky behaviors. ConclusionThe findings of this study support the influence of gender in the statistical explanation of both deliberate and undeliberate walking risky road behaviors, also depicting the differential role of certain demographic and psychosocial factors when we compare male and female pedestrians.

Spatial conditions for car dependency in mid-sized European city regions

ABSTRACT We analysed the spatial conditions for Car Dependency (CD) in three European cities and their suburbs, to investigate the following research question: What are the potential travel mode alternatives to the car, and how do they relate to actual travel behaviour? We defined CD as the lack of alternative transport modes to the car for reaching daily destinations. We selected three mid-sized city regions with different planning traditions and travel behaviour: Eindhoven, Southampton and Aachen. The results demonstrate that the differences in CD in the three cities are not substantial. The suburbs show a substantially higher CD than the city proper; however, when considering the e-bicycle as an alternative transport mode, this difference decreases. Daily amenities are largely within walking distance, in cities as well as in suburbs. For the daily commute there seems to be great potential for the (e)-bicycle as most employees, living both in the cities and their suburbs, currently live within 15 km of their jobs. Overall, our research shows that the differences in the actual modal split in the three cities cannot be explained by differences in the spatial conditions for CD.

Driven to Debt: Social Reproduction and (Auto)Mobility in Los Angeles

Since the financial crisis of 2008, subprime lending in the United States has flourished in auto loan markets. This article charts, for the first time, some of the contours of this underresearched part of the subprime landscape. In so doing, it makes two contributions. First, it widens and resituates debates about subprime lending by building on a suite of feminist political economic scholarship to argue that the sites, practices, and agents of social reproduction provide an essential—and largely neglected—perspective on the endurance and deepening of subprime markets. Second, the article leverages the intrinsically geographical, place-bound nature of social reproduction to provide a more holistic treatment of the financialization of everyday life. The article uses (auto)mobility as a novel vantage point from which to connect hitherto disparate social science literatures on financialization, transportation planning, welfare, and urban form. Drawing on secondary data and qualitative fieldwork in Los Angeles, the research explores the proliferation of subprime auto lending and the gendered, raced, and classed inequalities in mobility that mediate everyday life—the daily commute, the school run, the grocery shopping trip—and the demand for subprime debt.

Mapping the Cultural Identities of Youths in Hong Kong from a Social Capital Perspective

With its unique geopolitical status and multicultural setting, Hong Kong has harbored different youth groups generated from cross-border migration with mainland China who are tied to different cultural values and identifications. This study aims to investigate how social capital embedded in the family, school, and community influences the cultural identities across three groups of Chinese youths in the educational system: local students; cross-border students (born in Hong Kong, living in the neighbor city of mainland China but attending schools in Hong Kong on daily commute); and new immigrant students (born in mainland China but living in Hong Kong for less than seven years). Using data from a cross-sectional survey with 2180 fourth- to ninth-grade students in Hong Kong, the logistic regression results suggest that family and community social capital play significant roles in shaping the cultural identity of youths. Implications of the research findings are discussed.

Nonrecurrent traffic congestion detection with a coupled scalable Bayesian robust tensor factorization model

Nonrecurrent traffic congestion (NRTC) usually brings unexpected delays to commuters. Hence, it is critical to accurately detect and recognize the NRTC in a real-time manner. The advancement of road traffic detectors provides researchers with a large-scale multivariable temporal-spatial traffic data, which allows the deep research on NRTC to be conducted. However, it remains a challenging task to construct an analytical framework through which the natural temporal-spatial structural properties of multivariable traffic information can be effectively represented and exploited to better understand and detect NRTC. In this paper, we present a novel analytical training-free framework based on the coupled scalable Bayesian robust tensor factorization (Coupled SBRTF). The framework can couple multivariable traffic variables including traffic flow, road speed, and occupancy through sharing the same sparse structure. Moreover, it naturally captures the high-dimensional temporal-spatial patterns of the traffic data by tensor factorization. With its entries revealing the distribution and magnitude of NRTC, the shared sparse structure of the framework compasses sufficiently abundant information about NRTC. While the low-rank part of the framework, expresses the distribution of general expected traffic conditions as an auxiliary product. Experimental results on real-world traffic data show that the proposed method outperforms the NRTC detection models based on the coupled Bayesian robust principal component analysis (coupled BRPCA), the rank sparsity tensor decomposition (RSTD), and standard normal deviates (SND). The proposed method performs even better when only traffic data in weekdays are utilized, and hence can provide more precise estimations of NRTC for daily commuters.

Whole body vibration influence on bus fare collectors evaluated by using a brain training mobile app.

The present work aims to study the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) on bus fare collectors through the use of cognitive tests. It is of interest for all individuals working as bus fare collectors or any other activity where logic is of paramount importance and that is performed on a vibrating environment. Laboratory simulations were performed in 24 volunteers employing a vibrating platform subjected to vertical vibration. The influence of WBV on cognition was assessed using the performance on a logic game. The frequencies used were 5Hz and 30Hz. The acceleration amplitude values were set up as 0.7m/s2 and 0.2m/s2. A daily commute was simulated, based on data of the public transport system in the city of Belo Horizonte. A vibration-free test was initially performed to serve as a basis for comparison. The data obtained in all situations were compared and statistically analyzed. At 5Hz, variation only shows significant after 5min of vibration ceased as if the residual effect had passed after 5min of rest. The gender variable was not significant. However, the older the volunteer, the worse the performance. Regarding 30Hz frequency, the hypotheses did not meet the condition of significance at 5% but showed an opposite tendency indicating, in this situation, a score increase. It is noticed that the female volunteers presented a better performance in relation to the male gender The residual effect lasts for less than 10min for short exposure intervals, since the score of test 8, in 5Hz and 30Hz, show a reduction of performance. From the results, it was possible to conclude that the frequency of 5Hz may be related to reduced performance for long exposure times while the 30Hz frequency has positive effects on cognition as the exposure time increases. In fact, it is a tendency much more than a clear statistical finding. Regarding comfort, most reports related to the frequency of 5Hz are linked to the sensation of discomfort and difficulty in focusing visually, whereas, for the frequency of 30Hz, the reports indicate a feeling of muscular comfort and increased easiness of concentration.

Sensory and physiological assessment of spatial transient thermal environment changes at a tropical university campus

PurposeRecent studies have found that the high demand for air-conditioning usage in tropical countries has affected the thermal adaptability of building occupants to hot weather, and increased building energy consumption. This pilot study aims to investigate the effects of transient thermal environment changes on participants' sensory and physiological responses.Design/methodology/approachThe change of thermal perceptions, skin temperatures and core temperatures when exposed to transient thermal environments (cool-warm-cool) from 10 college-aged female participants during a simulated daily commute by foot to class in a tropical university campus were investigated. Subjective measurements were collected in real-time every 5 min.FindingsThe main finding suggests that participants were acclimatised to cool air-conditioned indoor environments, despite exhibiting significant mean skin temperature differences (p < 0.05). In addition, exposure to uniform air conditioning from 17 to 18°C for 20 min was thermally unacceptable and reduced concentration during given tasks.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focused on thermal comfort conditions in a uniform air-conditioned lecture hall, and the findings may not be applicable for residential and other private building spaces. The distinct temperature difference between indoor and outdoor in the tropical built environment resulted in high dependence on air-conditioning usage. The building occupants' well-being and energy conservation implications of the findings are discussed.Practical implicationsThis study provides the platform for discussion on the dynamics of occupants' comfort level and adopting a more variable thermal environment in tropical spatial transient thermal environments among architects and building management system managers. The findings from this study may contribute to the Malaysian Standards for Energy Efficiency and Use of Renewable Energy for Non-Residential Buildings (MS1525).Originality/valueA knowledge gap in adaptive thermal comfort due to exposure from transient conditions in tropical university campus for energy efficiency revision has been investigated.

Effect of lockdown on wastewater characteristics: a comparison of two large urban areas.

The effect of the lockdown imposed to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in France between March 14 and May 11, 2020 on the wastewater characteristics of two large urban areas (with between 250,000 and 300,000 inhabitants) was studied. The number of outward and inward daily commuters was extracted from national census databases related to the population and their commuting habits. For urban area A, with the larger number of daily inward commuters (110,000, compared to 53,000 for B), lockdown was observed to have an effect on the monthly load averages of chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total suspended solids and total phosphorus, all of which decreased (confidence level of 95%). This decrease, which varied between 20% and 40% and reached 45% for COD, can be related to the cessation of catering and activities such as hairdressing, which generate large amounts of graywater. The ammonium loads, due to the use of toilets before leaving for work and after returning from work, remained constant. In the case of urban area B, lockdown had no noticeable effect. More data would be necessary in the long term to analyze the effect of changes in the balance between ammonia and carbon sources on the operation of wastewater treatment plants.

Yulu: Moving Towards a Sustainable Future

The rapidly rising rate of urbanization, which is closely linked to economic growth, has exposed the world to several challenges such as inequality, environmental degradation, traffic congestion, infrastructural concerns and social conflicts. Therefore, urban sustainability has emerged as one of the most debatable discussions across the world. The existing network of transportation can no longer keep up with the growing demand in metropolitan cities. Short distance travel has become an unresolved issue for daily commuters. The case presents how MMVs have emerged as an alternative mode of transport for resolving issues of daily commuters regarding the first-mile connectivity, last-mile connectivity and short distance travel to reach their final destination. MMVs are basically light-weight vehicles which occupy less space on road. These vehicles include bicycles, e-bikes, skateboards, hoverboards and other battery-operated vehicles. The case narrates the journey of Yulu, a dockless bike-sharing venture which promoted the concept of green consumerism among the daily commuters at affordable rates. The venture initially started in the IT city of Bangalore and later expanded its operations to other cities such as Pune, Navi Mumbai, Gurugram and Bhubaneswar. The speciality of this venture is that it offers a sustainable solution to ever-increasing problems of traffic congestion and aggravating air pollution issues in metropolitan cities. Dilemma: How to offer a sustainable solution to the ever-increasing problem of traffic congestion and aggravating air pollution due to rising vehicular traffic? How to make short distance travel affordable and more convenient for daily commuters? Theory: Three pillars of sustainable development. Type of Case: Problem solving applied case. Protagonist: Present. Discussion and Case Questions: What strategies should be employed by the start-up to make it a more popular form of commute? How can the increasing rate of damage to the vehicles be brought down? How does organization structure and cluster management practices of Yulu help it to become more sustainable? How can the regulatory bodies and government promote and adopt such start-ups in their urban planning projects?

Salivary cortisol as a marker of self-perceived stress while commuting on Atlanta roadways during peak hours

Previous research has assessed individual exposures experienced during daily commuting, in occupational settings, and residences. In most metropolitan areas, the psychosocial stress factors also contribute to total daily environmental exposure. The aim of this work was to characterize differences in cortisol concentrations, a biomarker of psychosocial stress, collected in saliva before and following a scripted rush hour commute for 102 study participants. In addition, we compared salivary cortisol with other metrics of self-perceived stress, via questionnaire data. Results presented here were generated using data from two phases of the Atlanta Commuters Exposures studies (ACE-1 and ACE-2), which examined the impact of traffic air pollution on cardiorespiratory health while commuting on Atlanta roadways. Salivary cortisol was assessed by collecting saliva from study subjects immediately before and after the commute. The commutes each lasted for approximately 2 hours. In ACE-1 study, all the participants did two highway commutes separated by a one week period. Post-commute cortisol levels (1413.6±813.3 pg/ml) were higher than pre-commute cortisol levels (730.6±602.3 pg/ml). In ACE-2 study, each participant did a highway commute. Half of these study participants, the following week, also did a side street commute and the other half served as control i.e. did not do any commute and stayed indoors for the 2 hour period. Results indicated that the median cortisol concentrations post-commute was higher than pre commute for almost 95 percent of the study subjects. For highway commutes in ACE-2, the mean post-commute cortisol levels were 1520.5±713.5 pg/ml and pre-commute levels were713.5±725.2 pg/ml. For side-street commutes the levels were: post-commute, 1475±949.5 pg/ml; pre-commute = 652.7±532.7 pg/ml. Cortisol levels for controls were 1180.3±940.2 pg/ml for post-control versus 763.9±801.3 pg/ml for pre-control period. These results indicate that salivary cortisol may be used an effective means of assessing self-perceived psychosocial stress during commuting.

Unveiling large-scale commuting patterns based on mobile phone cellular network data

In this study, with Estonia as an example,we established an approach based on Hidden Markov Model to extract large-scale commuting patterns at different geographical levels using a massive amount of mobile phone cellular network data, which is referred to as Call detail record (CDR). The proposed model is designed for reconstructing and transforming the trajectories extracted from the CDR data. This step allowed us to perform origin-destination matrix extraction among different geographical levels, which helped in depicting the commuting patterns. Besides, we introduced different techniques for analyzing the commuting at the urban level. Our results unveiled that there is great potential behind mobile data of the cellular networks after transforming it into meaningful mobility patterns. That can easily be used for understanding urban dynamics, large-scale daily commuting and mobility. The aggressive development and growth of ubiquitous mobile sensing have generated valuable data that can be used with our approach for providing answers and solutions to the growing problems of transportation, urbanization and sustainability.

Exploring the Association of the Built Environment, Accessibility and Commuting Frequency with the Travel Times of High-Speed Rail Commuters: Evidence from China

This paper explores door-to-door commuting pa erns and the way commuting time is associated with three factors: the built environment, transport mode (from residence and workplace to HSR stations), and commute frequency. Econometric and statistical analyses are employed to examine evidence from China that draws on a survey targeting Suzhou-based HSR commuters who travel to work in Shanghai. The findings present three major points. First, a dense urban environment around residence and workplace is associated with reduced commuting time to high-density healthcare facilities (Suzhou and Shanghai) and financial institutions (Shanghai only). However, the density of public transport facilities near both residence and workplace has no association with commuting time. Second, taking the metro to and from HSR stations shows signi ficant association with increased commuting time for the first and last miles, while walking from HSR stations to the workplace shows signi ficant reduction of commuting time. Third, daily commuting is associated with reduced commuting time in the first mile, while weekly commuting is reversely related to longer commuting time in the last mile, which is coupled with a shorter commuting time for the first mile than the last mile. These findings lead us to conclude that reducing the total commuting time for a door-to-door journey is a key factor in associated commuting pa erns, commuting frequency, and travel mode choice. This re flects the choices commuters make in relation to where they live rather than where they work, which off ers fewer options. A longer last mile relates to a weekly commuting pa ern rather than a daily commuting. The current public metro systems in both home and work cities appear to be lengthy and inefficient. Transitoriented and integrated development is required to provide more efficient experiences for commuters.

Selection of Estuarine Feeding Habitats by Snowy and Great Egrets in the Great Marsh Estuary, Northeastern Massachusetts, USA

The feeding habitats of Great (Ardea alba) and Snowy (Egretta thula) egrets at the Great Marsh in Northeastern Massachusetts, USA, were characterized through field observations over two years during the breeding seasons of 2012 and 2013. Both species were from a large breeding colony making a daily commute to the Great Marsh for foraging. Habitats at the Great Marsh were delineated as marsh pools, the vegetated marsh, impoundments, open water, tidal flats, and tidal creeks and ditches. Observations (45 counts in 2012 and 48 in 2013) consisted of recording the number of birds, behavior (feeding or not), habitat, and the time of observation and relating these observations to the tidal cycle. The preferred feeding habitats of Snowy Egrets were in marsh pools and along the edges of large impoundments. The preferred feeding habitats of Great Egrets were on the marsh platform, particularly at high tides, and marsh pools. An analysis of physical characteristics with locations of feeding sites revealed no consistent patterns. Certain sites would occasionally support large numbers of feeding Great and Snowy egrets one day only to be ignored the next day at the same tide. The results suggest that Great and Snowy egrets are opportunistic in their selection of feeding sites at the Great Marsh. A future of wetter marshes might provide more feeding opportunities for Great and Snowy egrets, at least in the short-term.

Activity-based travel as a social signal of the City Satisfaction Index. Study case in a medium-sized city of Argentina

The travel based on activities carried out daily by citizens is a social signal that helps interpret the City Satisfaction Index. In the present study, we characterized these daily trips by the mode of transport, motive, duration, area of origin, area of destination, etc, and explored their relationship with four dimensions of citizen satisfaction: Job Opportunities, Urban planning and diversity, Nature and recreation and Reproductive success. This relationship was studied by the partial least squares path modelling and the four dimensions establish a conceptual framework of factors that are relevant for the satisfaction of citizens with their place of residence. The results obtained suggest a double-entry channel: mandatory activities influence the City Satisfaction Index, whereas discretionary, emotional, and self-expressive activities are key indicators of the performance of the index. The data used were based on a survey of the daily commutes of citizens of Tandil, a medium-sized city of Argentina, collected between 2012 and 2016.

An innovative GPS smartphone based strategy for university mobility management: A case study at the University of RomaTre, Italy

Private car dependence has adverse effects on both mental and physical health. Travel Demand Management (TDM) strategies are adopted by public and private organizations to encourage users to switch to sustainable transport for daily commutes. Originally, mobility management only focused on employees, but recently various universities worldwide have started to adopt policies specifically targeted at students. To improve their effectiveness, an innovative approach to TDM based on a GPS smartphone application is tested at University of RomaTre (Italy) on a sample of students. The strategy identifies the integration of all mobility management activities into one smartphone application called IPET (Individual Persuasive Eco-Travel Technology). The IPET enables activity-travel data collection and automatic processing, personalized information provision, use of persuasive technology and implementation of a gamification system. Two questionnaires were conducted before-and-after the measure, to assess its effects on psycho-attitudinal factors. The main objective of the investigation was to analyze individuals’ voluntary behavioral changes with regard to travel mode and everyday behavior following implementation of a personalized travel plan. Data analysis indicated a strong positive change in the level of awareness regarding CO2 emissions and calories burnt after the program implementation. Comparison of GPS data collected in the first and second weeks showed, for those who received a personalized travel plan, an 8.1% shift towards more sustainable transport modes.

Examining public acceptance of autonomous mobility

Over the last decade, the technology adopted for the automation of transportation has advanced at a pace that now the emergence of Autonomous Vehicles (AV’s) might not be as far away as it was thought a few years ago. However, the successful penetration of these vehicles in public roads will mainly rest upon their acceptance and adoption by individual road users and how they embrace this new generation of cars. This paper reports the results of a national survey study conducted among 475 Irish people to evaluate their interest in, and concerns about the adoption of AVs in their daily commute trends. The paper has also analysed people’s acceptance and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for AVs compared to Manually Driven Vehicles (MDVs). The results showed that people, in general, were not interested in driving AVs; only one-fifth of the population expressed a high level of interest. Concerns about recording data had an extreme and negative impact on interest since the majority of respondents were not ready to accept AVs' recording of data because of their concerns about privacy. People were also mostly unsure about or not likely to believe in the safety and security of AVs’ operation, and they were not at all willing to accept liability for AVs. In addition, the results revealed that cost substantially impacts people’s AV purchasing decisions, as when the cost was not an issue, people were much more interested in purchasing an AV.

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in street dust from bus stops in Qingyang city: Estimates of lifetime cancer risk and sources of exposure for daily commuters in Northwest China

Lifetime cancer risk and exposure of daily commuters to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in cities of Northwest China were determined from a study of street dust samples obtained from bus stops in Qingyang city. The sum of 16 priority PAHs (Σ16 PAHs) concentrations in the dust samples ranged from 0.8 to 18.3 mg kg−1 (mean 3.0 mg kg−1) and the distribution of individual, carcinogenic, combustion specific, low (2–3 rings) and high molecular weight (4–6 rings) PAHs was determined. The benzo[a]pyrene toxic equivalents of Σ16 PAHs ranged from 0.01 to 12.2 mg kg−1 (mean 0.8 mg kg−1). Incremental lifetime cancer risk from exposure to PAHs in dust at bus stops in Qingyang city was estimated at 1.9 × 10−6 for adults and 3.5 × 10−6 for children (confidence limit ≥ 95%). Emission source analysis of PAHs in bus stop dust showed that they were mainly derived from residential coal, oil and biomass combustion, e.g. from boilers, traffic vehicles, and Kang heaters. Higher concentrations of PAHs were obtained at bus stops near transport hubs, commercial districts, and administrative institutions.