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Evaluation of the public health impacts of traffic congestion: a health risk assessment

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Health, October 2010
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (85th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
5 news outlets
blogs
3 blogs
policy
2 policy sources
twitter
4 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
184 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
384 Mendeley
citeulike
2 CiteULike
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Title
Evaluation of the public health impacts of traffic congestion: a health risk assessment
Published in
Environmental Health, October 2010
DOI 10.1186/1476-069x-9-65
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jonathan I Levy, Jonathan J Buonocore, Katherine von Stackelberg

Abstract

Traffic congestion is a significant issue in urban areas in the United States and around the world. Previous analyses have estimated the economic costs of congestion, related to fuel and time wasted, but few have quantified the public health impacts or determined how these impacts compare in magnitude to the economic costs. Moreover, the relative magnitudes of economic and public health impacts of congestion would be expected to vary significantly across urban areas, as a function of road infrastructure, population density, and atmospheric conditions influencing pollutant formation, but this variability has not been explored. In this study, we evaluate the public health impacts of ambient exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations associated with a business-as-usual scenario of predicted traffic congestion. We evaluate 83 individual urban areas using traffic demand models to estimate the degree of congestion in each area from 2000 to 2030. We link traffic volume and speed data with the MOBILE6 model to characterize emissions of PM2.5 and particle precursors attributable to congestion, and we use a source-receptor matrix to evaluate the impact of these emissions on ambient PM2.5 concentrations. Marginal concentration changes are related to a concentration-response function for mortality, with a value of statistical life approach used to monetize the impacts. We estimate that the monetized value of PM2.5-related mortality attributable to congestion in these 83 cities in 2000 was approximately $31 billion (2007 dollars), as compared with a value of time and fuel wasted of $60 billion. In future years, the economic impacts grow (to over $100 billion in 2030) while the public health impacts decrease to $13 billion in 2020 before increasing to $17 billion in 2030, given increasing population and congestion but lower emissions per vehicle. Across cities and years, the public health impacts range from more than an order of magnitude less to in excess of the economic impacts. Our analyses indicate that the public health impacts of congestion may be significant enough in magnitude, at least in some urban areas, to be considered in future evaluations of the benefits of policies to mitigate congestion.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 384 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 4 1%
Vietnam 1 <1%
Sri Lanka 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Nigeria 1 <1%
Unknown 375 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 73 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 59 15%
Researcher 44 11%
Student > Bachelor 39 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 18 5%
Other 57 15%
Unknown 94 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Engineering 78 20%
Environmental Science 52 14%
Social Sciences 28 7%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 23 6%
Computer Science 20 5%
Other 76 20%
Unknown 107 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 72. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 September 2023.
All research outputs
#571,147
of 24,801,176 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Health
#159
of 1,574 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,479
of 104,172 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Health
#3
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,801,176 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,574 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 37.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 104,172 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.