Identifying Traffic Emissions Hotspots for Urban Air Quality Interventions: The Case of Madrid City

Since road traffic is the main source of NOx in urban areas, most cities in the world have designed and implemented transport policies to reduce them. Studies have reported associations between different health issues and residential proximity to high traffic roads. However, the environmental impact analysis included in the appraisal of transport projects do not usually take into account the local dimension of the air pollution problem; i.e. the fact that air pollution emissions has more severe consequences in high populated areas than in low populated areas. Urban traffic in Madrid accounts for 83% of total NOx emissions and the city consistently fails to meet air pollutant limits set by European legislation. A controversial air quality protocol for high nitrogen dioxide pollution has been adopted including, among other traffic-related measures, a total restriction of private vehicles in the central district in extreme situations. This paper proposes a network air quality diagnosis of Madrid City Centre taking into account both transport exhaust emissions and population exposure levels. For this purpose, a macroscopic traffic model was extended to have the capability to simulate emissions on the basis of average vehicle speeds and traffic intensity at the link level. Two indicators will be compared; gross NOx emissions and population-weighted NOx emissions. The use of the later indicator is proposed as a ready-to-use tool to measure population exposure levels, to identify network air quality hotspots and to design transport emissions reduction actions in urban environments.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Standing Committee on Transportation and Air Quality. Alternate title: Identifying Traffic Emission Hotspots for Urban Air Quality Interventions: Case of Madrid City, Spain
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Prada, Fiamma Perez
  • Monzon, Andres
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality; Highway traffic; Pollutants; Traffic models; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: Madrid (Spain)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01628693
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-05015
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 8 2017 5:09PM