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Health benefits from cleaner vehicles and increased active transportation in Seattle, Washington

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 32, pages 538–544 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Climate mitigation policies that focus on the transportation sector yield near-term health co-benefits that could motivate policy action.

Objective

We quantified CO2 emission reductions as well as the air pollution and health benefits of urban transportation policies promoting electric vehicles (EV) and walking and bicycling in Seattle, Washington.

Methods

We compared a business-as-usual scenario projected to 2035 with intervention scenarios in which 35% of gasoline vehicles were switched to EV, and 50% of car trips less than 8 kilometers were replaced by walking or bicycling. We modeled changes in primary traffic-generated oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as well as walking and bicycling activity, CO2 emissions from traffic, and fatal traffic injuries due to the transportation policy scenarios. We estimated the impacts of these changes on annual cases of asthma and premature mortality in the Seattle population.

Results

Increasing the use of EV, walking, and bicycling is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by 744 tons/year (30%) and lower annual average concentrations of primary traffic-generated NOx and PM2.5 by 0.32 ppb (13%) and 0.08 μg/m3 (19%), respectively. In Seattle, the lower air pollutant concentrations, greater active transportation, and lower fatal traffic injuries would prevent 13 (95% CI: −1, 28), 49 (95% CI: 19, 71), and 5 (95% CI: 0, 14) premature deaths per year, respectively and 20 (95% CI: 8, 27) cases of asthma per year.

Significance

Moving towards cleaner vehicles and active transportation can reduce CO2 emissions, improve air quality, and population health. The resulting public health benefits provide important motivation for urban climate action plans.

Impact statement

Using key components of the health impact assessment framework, we quantify the environmental and health benefits of urban transportation policy scenarios that promote electric vehicle use and replace short car trips with walking and bicycling as compared with a business as usual scenario in 2035. Our findings demonstrate that transportation scenarios promoting cleaner vehicles and active transportation can reduce CO2 emissions, improve air quality, and increase physical activity levels, resulting in significant public health benefits.

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Data availability

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge: Washington State Agencies such as the Washington State Department of Transportation for providing information on traffic injuries and the information to generate inputs for MOVES. The Air Quality Program of the Washington State Department of Ecology for providing information to generate inputs for MOVES. Phil Swartzendruber at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency for providing AERMET outputs of meteorological conditions in the region. Alex Cao, consultant at the Consultant for Statistics, Computing and Analytics Research of the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School for providing assistance and support to processing big datasets. We also thank the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación-COLCIENCIAS of Colombia and the Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, USA for funding this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación-COLCIENCIAS of Colombia and the Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, US.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Paola Filigrana

    Present address: 1579 Rhinelander Avenue, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Paola Filigrana, Josette Gauthier & Sara D. Adar

  2. Department of Environmental Health, Boston University, 715 Albany St, T4W, Boston, MA, 02118-2526, USA

    Jonathan I. Levy

  3. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Stuart Batterman

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  1. Paola Filigrana
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  5. Sara D. Adar
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Contributions

The authors specific contributions to this work are as follows: PF made substantial contributions to conceive and design the study, acquisition of data, analyzed and interpreted data, drafted the article, including the version to be published. JL contributed to the design and implementation of the study and the health impact assessment approach, made important contributions to analyze and interpret the data, critically revised the draft for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version to be published. JG contributed to the acquisition of data, structured analytical datasets, reviewed several drafts and gave approval of the version to be submitted; SB made substantial contributions to the study design, especially the air quality modeling approach, critically revised the draft for important intellectual content, and gave final approval of the version to be submitted. SA made substantial contributions to conceive and design the study, provided intellectual insights to analyze and interpret data, acquisition of data, revised draft for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version to be submitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paola Filigrana.

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Filigrana, P., Levy, J.I., Gauthier, J. et al. Health benefits from cleaner vehicles and increased active transportation in Seattle, Washington. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 32, 538–544 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00423-y

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