Evaluation of the Public Health Impacts of Traffic Congestion: A Health Risk Assessment

This article describes how traffic congestion is a significant issue in urban areas in the United States and around the world. Previous studies have estimated the economic costs of congestion, related to fuel and time wasted, but few have quantified the public health impacts or determined how these impacts compare in magnitude to the economic costs. Moreover, the relative magnitudes of economic and public health impacts of congestion would be expected to vary significantly across urban areas, as a function of road infrastructure, population density, and atmospheric conditions influencing pollutant formation, but this variability has not been explored. This article evaluates the public health impacts of ambient exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations associated with a business-as-usual scenario of predicted traffic congestion. The authors evaluate 83 individual urban areas using traffic demand models to estimate the degree of congestion in each area from 2000 to 2030. The authors link traffic volume and speed data with the MOBILE6 model to characterize emissions of PM2.5 and particle precursors attributable to congestion, and use a source-receptor matrix to evaluate the impact of these emissions on ambient PM2.5 concentrations. Marginal concentration changes are related to a concentration-response function for mortality, with a value of statistical life approach used to monetize the impacts.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987789/?tool=pubmed
• Record URL:
  • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987789/pdf/1476-069X-9-65.pdf
• 
• Authors:
  • Levy, Jonathan I
  • Buonocore, Jonathan J
  • von Stackelberg, Katherine
• Publication Date: 2010-10-27

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 1-12
• Serial:
  • Environmental Health
  • Volume: 9
  • Issue Number: 65
  • Publisher: BioMed Central
  • EISSN: 1476-069X
  • Serial URL: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Environmental impacts; Exhaust gases; Particulates; Pollutants; Public health; Risk assessment; Traffic congestion; Travel demand; Travel time; Urban areas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01342480
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 23 2011 9:06AM