Plumin awful

The Infrastructurist mentioned a study done recently by UCLA. All had thought that the pollution effect of a freeway extended to about 300 metres downwind. Not so, pollutants spread up to 2.6 kilometres downwind, that’s a vulnerable 5.2 km belt along all our freeways. This is what it looks like for Melbourne:

Click for bigness.

In another surprise, the pollution is much worse before dawn in the Winter, despite lower traffic levels at this time of day. This is thanks to “low wind speeds and shallow temperature inversions”, says Science Daily

The researchers recommend keeping your windows closed (unless you have a toxic house?), and no jogging before sunrise! My recommendation is to move to Elwood, while it is still above sea level.

Read the full UCLA article at Science Direct (see abstract for free).

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Posted by Peter on 10.07.09 in sustainability and cities