Bylanes As Polluted As Main Roads, Bicyclists Worst-affected: Survey | Kolkata News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India

Kolkata: Crowdsourcing hyper-local air pollution monitoring data has unveiled that not only major thoroughfares, the secondary and tertiary streets are also emerging as pollution hotspots. Cyclists and pedestrians, who do not contribute to air pollution, are found to be the worst-affected.

Factors such as on-road construction in secondary streets and poor ventilation in tertiary ones contribute to the accumulation of harmful pollutants.The Climate Thinker, an NGO, in collaboration with bicyclists from Kolkata Cycle Samaj, conducted a comprehensive air quality monitoring campaign over eight months. Nine bicyclists with PM2.5 monitors gathered crucial data from July 2023 to Feb 2024.

The Climate Thinker secretary Sandip Sankar Ghosh said: "The most environment-friendly mode of transport has the highest exposure level. This shows the inequity in air pollution exposure."

Additionally, ground-based surveys were conducted to supplement the findings. This concerted effort has effectively captured the intricate distribution of air pollution at the street level across the city. The consequences of this unequal exposure to pollution disproportionately affect the underprivileged communities.

Doctor Srijan Halder said: "The study clearly shows the importance of hyperlocal pollution monitoring and the importance of crowdsourcing of data." The objective of the study was to measure PM2.5 levels in different types of roads in Kolkata, including routes frequently used by bicyclists.

Due to restrictions on cycling on 71 main roads, primary, secondary and tertiary roads were selected. Motorized and non-motorized traffic density were considered during road selection. Separated data sets were collected for north & south Kolkata due to distinct land-use patterns. Both mobile and point sampling data were collected for each of the roads during office and non-office hours.