A Comparison of Particulate Exposure Levels during Taxi, Bus, and Metro Commuting among Four Chinese Megacities

Ying Zhang, Zhengdong Huang and Jiacheng Huang
Additional contact information
Ying Zhang: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Shenzhen 518060, China
Zhengdong Huang: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Shenzhen 518060, China
Jiacheng Huang: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Shenzhen 518060, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: Exposure to inhalable particulate matter pollution is a hazard to human health. Many studies have examined the in-transit particulate matter pollution across multiple travel modes. However, limited information is available on the comparison of in-transit exposure among cities that experience different climates and weather patterns. This study aimed to examine the variations in in-cabin particle concentrations during taxi, bus, and metro commutes among four megacities located in the inland and coastal areas of China. To this end, we employed a portable monitoring approach to measure in-transit particle concentrations and the corresponding transit conditions using spatiotemporal information. The results highlighted significant differences in in-cabin particle concentrations among the four cities, indicating that PM concentrations varied in an ascending order of, and the ratios of different-sized particle concentrations varied in a descending order of CS, SZ, GZ, and WH. Variations in in-cabin particle concentrations during bus and metro transits between cities were mainly positively associated with urban background particle concentrations. Unlike those in bus and metro transit, in-cabin PM concentrations in taxi transit were negatively associated with urban precipitation and wind speed. The variations in particle concentrations during the trip were significantly associated with passenger density, posture, the in-cabin location of investigators, and window condition, some of which showed interactive effects. Our findings suggest that improving the urban background environment is essential for reducing particulate pollution in public transport microenvironments. Moreover, optimizing the scheduling of buses and the distribution of bus stops might contribute to mitigating the in-cabin exposure levels in transit. With reference to our methods and insights, policymakers and other researchers may further explore in-transit exposure to particle pollution in different cities.

Keywords: particulate matter (PM); commuting exposure; spatiotemporal information; transport microenvironments (TMEs); Chinese megacities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5830/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5830/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:5830-:d:812733

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().