Air pollution from road transport is a major environmental problem in urban areas. The steps undertaken in developing an emissions estimation procedure for road traffic in Greater Manchester is presented. This process builds on the existing traffic flow database, by incorporating the facility to estimate current and future emissions from road traffic by entering emission factors, the composition of the vehicle fleet and the daily traffic flow profile. The use of this procedure allied with tools such as Geographical Information Systems will be important in helping to formulate local air quality management plans and improve the capability of urban transport planning. (A)
Abstract