Sadly, almost all of us have been affected by poor air quality, from urban pollution to wildfires, even volcanic eruptions. Does air quality impact our transportation choices? Some literature on this topic indicates that to be true, with studies reporting that the number of people cycling declined when air quality alerts were in place. Other studies that focused on vehicle use (personal cars and public transport) during air quality events did not indicate a noticeable decrease. The health benefits of an active lifestyle are well known, but the risk of exposure to air pollution can minimize the benefits. Would individuals who switched to using micromobility vehicles (e.g., bicycle, e-bikes, electric scooter) change their behavior on days with bad air quality?
To find out, authors Lei Xu, Iris Tien, and John E. Taylor cross-examined micromobility usage, traffic volume data, and air quality data. They used Austin, Texas for their case study and compared user response to information about air quality with their transportation choice. Learn more about their results that provide insight into how attention to air quality can change transportation policies, impact sustainability, and improve public health at https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA.MEENG-6168. The abstract is below.
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that responses to information on poor air quality are more discernible on active transport than on driving. However, it is unclear whether the differences in responses stem from the differences between the characteristics of transportation modes or the social context–related factors. We conducted a comparative study to evaluate the effectiveness of air quality alerts in influencing the usage of different transportation modes, namely, micromobility and driving. An examination of over 6.9 million micromobility trips and 3 million traffic counts revealed that usage behaviors on both transportation modes do not change in response to air quality alerts, but both decrease during the daytime of a polluted day. The findings suggest that several social context–related factors matter to the success of air quality alerts, including the overall societal attention/awareness of air quality and the coverage and access to more sustainable transportation modes to empower the public.
Explore these results and how they might affect urban transportation planning in the ASCE Library: https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA.MEENG-6168.
