Exposure of bicyclists to vehicle emissions at bicycle routes of major roads in the UK cities

Abstract

The active transports enhance the local decarbonisation and strengthen the energy security, reduces dependence on fossil fuels and promote local sustainable growth. The active transport is facing not only the rapid growth of the vehicle fleet due to a burgeoning population and urbanisation but also the mobility challenges with inaccessible to services and amenities, disconnected route, disintegration with public transport and exposure to high-level air pollution in a mixed-traffic environment. There is a concern that the bicyclists are exposed to higher level of air pollutants than the automobile users because bicyclists take longer and heighten the breathing rate, therefore increasing uptake of pollutants into the body. This paper analysed the exposure of bicyclists to PM10 and PM2.5 using the air quality data collected by a cyclist at A34 and A38 bicycle routes in the Birmingham city, UK. The A34 is north of Birmingham with 50,136 average daily traffic and key cycle route in Perry Barr for the commonwealth games in 2022 at Alexander stadium. The A38 is south of Birmingham in Selly Oak with 21,639 ADT starting from the Birmingham University to the Birmingham city centre. This study observes higher levels of PM10 and PM2.5 at both selected bicycle routes especially at signalised junctions. The level of PM10 and PM2.5 were increased from 7.9 µg/m3 to 14.6 µg/m3 and 5.4 µg/m3 to 9.0 µg/m3 within a minutes of signal lights turning green at signalised junctions at A38 bicycle route, respectively. Similarly, levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were increased from 14.7 µg/m3 to 16.8 µg/m3 and 9.6 µg/m3 to 10.8 µg/m3 at A34 bicycle route, respectively. The questionnaire survey observes that bicyclists prefer separate bicycle routes from the vehicular traffic both for health and safety concerns.