Air quality improvement in urban areas using traffic operation management

Clean air is becoming a valuable good while the exhausts and physical processes from road transportation cause more and more pollutants. Critical air pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds have severe effects on the respiratory track for adults and children. To mitigate these adverse health effects, a strict set of regulations from the governments are in place. Especially the traffic sector provides a lot of opportunities to reduce the emissions of these pollutants. The focus of this report is fast responding traffic operational measures. Compared to long term developments like emission standards for new vehicles, these measures are able to reduce emission significantly within a few years or shorter periods of time. A research on applied measures in Toronto, Canada and Karlsruhe, Germany, has shown, that alternative modes of transportation like cycling and public transit have the highest efficiency to reduce the burden of air pollution.