For the 30 per cent of Canadians who live within 500 metres of a major roadway, a new study reveals that the type of vehicles rolling past their homes can matter more than total traffic volume in determining the amount of air pollution they breathe.
For the 30 per cent of Canadians who live within 500 metres of a major roadway, a new study reveals that the type of vehicles rolling past their homes can matter more than total traffic volume in determining the amount of air pollution they breathe.
A two-year U of T Engineering study has revealed large trucks to be the greatest contributors to black carbon emissions close to major roadways. Professor Greg Evans (ChemE) hopes these results gets city planners and residents thinking more about the density of trucks, rather than the concentration of vehicle traffic, outside their homes, schools and daycares. The study was recently published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
“I’ve been asked by people, ‘We live near a high-traffic area, should we be worried?’ My response is that it’s not so much about how much traffic there is, it’s more about the percentage of trucks, older trucks in particular.”
The comprehensive study — led by Evans and collaborators at Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, as well as the Metro Vancouver Regional District — involved measuring vehicle emissions near roads in Vancouver and Toronto, including the 401, North America’s busiest stretch of highway.
Read more at University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Image: This is professor Greg Evans of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. (Credit: Marit Mitchell)
