New York on Pause and Traffic-Related Air Pollution: Quantifying Diurnal Changes in No2 Due to Covid-19 Stay-at-Home Orders
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: IntroductionPolicy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the NY on PAUSE stay-at-home order, substantially reduced traffic and traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) in New York City (NYC). We evaluated the magnitude of TRAP decreases and identified modifying factors such as weekend/weekday, road proximity, location, and time of day—important variables for planning future traffic interventions. MethodsHourly nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations from January 1, 2018 through June 8, 2020 were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality System for six monitors in the NYC area. We used an interrupted time series design to determine the impact of NY on PAUSE on NO2 concentrations, using a mixed effects model with random intercepts for monitor location, adjusted for meteorology and long-term trends. We evaluated effect modification by weekend/weekday, road proximity, and time of day in stratified models, and location by including random slopes for each monitor.ResultsNO2 concentrations decreased due to NY on PAUSE by -3.2 ppb (95% confidence interval [CI]: -3.5, -3.0), on average. We found no evidence for modification by weekend/weekday, but found greater decreases in NO2 at non-roadside monitors. We found weak evidence for modification by location. For time of day, we found the largest decreases for 5 am (-4.5 ppb, 95% CI: -5.7, -3.3) through 7 am (-4.0 ppb, 95% CI: -5.2, -2.8), followed by 6 pm and 7 pm (-3.7 ppb, 95% CI: -4.8, -2.6 and -4.8, -2.5, respectively), while the smallest decreases occurred from 10 pm (-2.3 ppb, 95% CI: -3.5, -1.1) to 1am (-1.9 ppb, 95% CI: -3.1, -0.7).ConclusionNY on PAUSE’s impact on TRAP varied greatly diurnally. For future large-scale traffic interventions, our findings suggest that blanket policies that do not target specific time windows will likely result in larger NO2 decreases during rush hour windows.
Institution: Columbia University
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,200
Awards: Impact of COVID-19 related stay-at-home orders on traffic, traffic-related air pollution, and cardiovascular health in New York City, G4695235992, Integrating Air Pollution Prediction Models: Uncertainty Quantification and Propagation in Health Studies, G715492726, Crowd-Sourced Traffic Data: Predicting Air Pollution & Ischemic Stroke, Advanced training in environmental health and data science: molecules to populations, Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan, G914621089
OpenAlex ID: W4306818371