Bicycle Route Preference and Pollution Inhalation Dose: Comparing Exposure and Distance Trade-Offs
Sponsor
The data for this analysis was supported by the following grants: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Active Living Research (Grant no. 51711) and National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) (Grant nos. 560, 849), a university transportation center funded by the US Department of Transportation (Grant no. DTRT12-G-UTC15).
Published In
Journal of Transport & HealthPublication
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
3-2016
Subjects
Cyclists -- Health and hygiene, Air -- Pollution -- Health aspects, Automobiles -- Motors -- Exhaust gas -- Health aspects
Abstract
Do bicyclist preferences for low-traffic facilities lead to route choices that minimize air pollution inhalation doses? For both preferences and doses a routing trade-off can exist between exposure to motor vehicle traffic and trip duration. We use past studies of bicycle route preferences and pollution exposure levels to estimate exposure/distance trade-offs among roadway facility types. Exposure/distance trade-offs for preferences and doses are found to be similar when comparing off-street paths, bike boulevards, and low-to-moderate traffic streets with or without bike lanes; when choosing a route among these facilities we expect bicyclists to approximately minimize inhalation doses. Compared to dose-minimizing behavior, bicyclists tend to use high-traffic streets too often if there is a bike lane and not enough if there is not. The recommendation for practice is to provide low-traffic routes wherever possible in bicycle networks, not to limit bicycle facilities on high-traffic streets. Networks with extensive low-traffic bicycle facilities are robust to misalignments between preferences and doses because they reduce both the likelihood and severity of excess (non-minimum) doses.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1016/j.jth.2015.12.002
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18303
Citation Details
Bigazzi , A., Broach, J., and Dill, J. (2016). Bicycle Route Preference and Pollution Inhalation Dose: Comparing Exposure and Distance Trade-Offs. Journal of Transport & Health, Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages 107-113.