Alameda, CA
Do-It-Yourself PM10 Exposure

Edmund Seto, PhD
July 2005

The following interactive exercise computes particulate matter (PM10) exposure along any given bicycle route in the city of Alameda, CA.

The map to the right is interactive, so feel free to zoom in and out, and click-and-drag your mouse to pan the map to make it easier to trace your bike route.

Step 1:
Using the map on the right, use your mouse to click on the start of your bike route.  You will see a green marker ( )indicate the start of your route.

Step 2:
Click your mouse once at each turn along your bike route.  You will see a straight red line form as you click your route.

Step 3:
Once you have finished tracing your route, press "Calculate exposure" below.

Clear Map | Calculate exposure

Exposure Result

Assumptions: 5mph average speed,  55L/min inhalation rate, concentrations along route are computed as the average of the 3 closest sampled locations.

Learn more about this demonstration project in Alameda [ here ]

 

Bicycle Routes in the city of Alameda

How does exposure along your bicycle route compare to the average for Alameda?

Below is a map of PM10 concentrations along the city of Alameda's main bicycle routes.  The bicycle route data was obtained from the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).  I measured PM10 concentrations at 28 locations across the island as described [ here ].  Concentrations were calculated by averaging the concentrations of the 3 closest measured sites to individual 10m segments that make up the bicycle routes 

The histogram below indicates the distribution of concentrations for all segments along the main bicycle routes.  Compare this to your average concentration computed above for your particular bicycle route.  The x-axis is PM10 concentration in mg/m3.  The y-axis is the number of bicycle route segments that had that concentration.

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