Table 1.
Air pollution exposures during cycling and car driving.
| City | Study design | Pollutant | Mean concentration car (μg/m3) | Mean concentration cycling (μg/m3) | Ratio car/cycle | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | Two inner-city routes traveled for about 1 hr in January and May 1990 (n = 55 and 41) | CO BTEX |
4,833 332 |
1,730 99 |
2.8 3.4 |
van Wijnen et al. 1995 |
| Copenhagen | Two cars and two cyclists on a 7.6-km inner-city route in the morning of two days in summer 1998 | BTEX TSP |
44 44 |
150 75 |
0.3 0.6 |
Rank et al. 2001 |
| London | Three routes from the center (one central, two to more outward sections) in July 1999 and February 2000 (n = 96 cycle trips and 54 car trips) | PM2.5 EC |
37 29 |
28 18 |
1.32 1.6 |
Adams et al. 2001 |
| London | Two short (~ 1 km) routes (one heavy traffic, one mixed) traveled in spring 2003 during early morning, lunchtime, and afternoon | EC | 39 | 25 | 1.6 | Gegisian 2003 |
| London | Two short (~ 1 km) routes (one heavy traffic, one mixed) traveled in spring 2003 during early morning, lunchtime, and afternoon | PM2.5 UFP CO |
38 99,736 1,300 |
34 93,968 1,100 |
1.12 1.06 1.18 |
Kaur et al. 2005 |
| Huddersfield, UK | 7-mile journey from village to Huddersfield, cycle along a major highway and a separate bicycle path (six samples in September/October 1996) | Abs | 7.6 | 2.7 6.3 |
2.6 1.2 |
Kingham et al. 1998 |
| 11 Dutch cities | Simultaneous cycle and car drives between same start and end points in afternoon in 11 large Dutch cities, ~ 12 routes in each city; sampling duration, ~ 3 hr/city (1 day per city in autumn 2006) | UFP PM2.5 |
25,545 49 |
24,329 45 |
1.05 1.11 |
Boogaard et al. 2009 |
| Arnhem, the Netherlands | 2-hr morning rush hour exposures of cyclists and car and bus passengers on an urban route in a medium-size city | UFP PM2.5 Abs |
40,351 78 8.8 |
44,258 72 6.0 |
0.91 1.09 1.48 |
Zuurbier et al. 2010 |
| Mean | Simple mean of ratios from applicable studies | PM2.5 EC and Abs UFP |
1.16 1.65 1.01 |
Abbreviations: Abs, absorbance (10−5 m), a marker for (diesel) soot; BTEX, sum of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene; CO, carbon monoxide; EC, elemental carbon, equivalent to (diesel) soot; TSP, total suspended dust; UFP, ultrafine particle count (per cubic centimeter).