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Air quality map shows Toronto’s most polluted neighbourhoods

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Air quality map shows Toronto’s most polluted neighbourhoods

An air pollution map produced by the team pinpoints Toronto’s air-pollution hot spots, showing that areas near highways and major intersections can have three to four times the average amount of ultrafine particles put out by vehicle tailpipes.

High-pollution areas affect both wealthy and poor neighbourhoods in the city, creating an invisible health divide that no one was aware of until now.

“We’ve found that the variability of exposure across the city is quite a bit larger than we expected,” said Greg Evans, a professor of engineering at U of T. “It’s not that there’s one level of air pollution that covers the entire city; it’s that people will have different levels of exposure in different parts of the city, depending on how much surrounding traffic there is.”


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“Air pollution itself is quite a complex soup of chemicals, and some of the ones that people pay the most attention to (such as ozone and medium-sized particles) tend to be much more homogeneous across the city,” Evans said. “But when you look at other pollutants that are more specific to traffic (such as ultrafine particles) you start to find that there’s much greater variability.”

Ultrafine particles, linked to diesel vehicles, can be twice as prevalent downwind from major roads as they are upwind, Evans said. The air pollution map accounts for daily variations by using average readings taken over an entire summer.

It shows that the bottom of Highway 427 and its intersection with Highway 401 near Pearson airport are heavily polluted, as well as areas surrounding the junctions of the Don Valley Parkway and Highway 401, Steeles Ave. W. and Highway 400, and Steeles Ave. E and Highway 404.

Scarborough Town Centre is a vicinity of concern, as is the neighbourhood between Keele St. and Dufferin St. south of the 401.


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Smaller pockets near the DVP and Eglinton Ave E., Sheppard Ave. W. and Highway 400, and Eglinton Ave. E. and Birchmount Rd. have heavy pollution, as does a swath of the eastern downtown, from the Gardiner Expressway to Dundas St., and from Yonge St. to Leslie St.

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I live in the Bluffs close to the lake, and the air does seem cleaner there, in my unscientific just-breathing-it-in testing method.

My sister lives on the waterfront, and I'm not sure it feels as clean, but right next to the water on the boardwalk it's usually nice, unless you're standing next to a big diesel powered boat. Then it's horrible. Plus, not as sure about her building since it's right next to Lakeshore Blvd. However, as suggested, I guess what I'm noticing are probably the smells from diesel trucks, which are related but not necessarily quite the same thing as this study. I don't smell it in her building at all, but I can smell it occasionally standing on the sidewalk in front of her building since it's next to the main road. Also, she lives by the airport, so perhaps there's that.
 
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I worked in one of the office towers downtown and had a wide view to the west - except for when it was windy, every morning by about 9:30 there would be a blanket of brown smog hanging over the city from the morning rush hour traffic.
 
I saw this last night as well. I haven't seen it in print, but on the TV last night they mentioned that something like 90% of this pollution comes from 10% of the vehicles (i.e. trucks). They said it could help to make an 'easy' win to reduce these emissions, if they target these vehicles for proper maintenance to address the issue.
 
Not surprised about Eglinton and Don Mills. That intersection is just constantly a gridlock of cars going back hundreds of meters stalling as they wait to turn south on Don Mills or East/West on Eglinton.

Also, is this another reason to remove the eastern Gardiner?
 
Also, is this another reason to remove the eastern Gardiner?
No. Initial assessments are that traffic delays in that area would increase.

Gardiner Expressway removal would increase commute times

If it is removed, commuters who use the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner to get downtown could spend an extra 20 minutes on the road each day, and as much as half an hour without transit improvements that include a downtown relief subway line.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works committee, criticized removal on many fronts. “Businesses and families will have more delays in getting home and to work,” he said, adding the additional gridlock would increase polluting greenhouse gases.


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P.S. The remaining two options that city council are looking at are a complete teardown of the Gardner, and a partial one which maintains the western part while tearing down that eastern section as you suggest. But it will still increase commute times from Scarborough if you use that route, and increased commute times mean increased idling.

BTW, I do drive to downtown from South Scarborough occasionally, but actually I take Gerrard because I work north of Gerrard, and it's actually faster than taking the Lakeshore/Gardner. Gridlock on that is already bad in rush hour, and it will only get worse, both from increased density and from the removal of part (or all) of the Gardner. I wouldn't want to be riding my bike there at those times. (See 44 North's post below.)
 
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When biking over the Don Valley / DVP in the early morning in Spring or Fall when the dew point was really high, I would get light-headed. All that rush hour exhaust mixed into a low-hanging mist confined into a valley...it can definitely be pretty bad when it lingers low to the ground like that.
 
Areas of high concentration of pollutants:
  • 427 & QEW
  • DVP & 401
  • Weston & Steeles
  • 427 & 409
  • 404 & Steeles
  • Kennedy & 401

It's clear that certain nodes along the 401, the 404, Steeles and the 427 are the key areas to focus on. They're also the most highly congested traffic spots in the city during rush hour. Now if only we can improve flow of traffic...:eek:
 
This is an interesting study and I hope it helps guide policy around emissions and combatting pollution in the city. There is no level of pollution too low to care about.

On the other hand let's face it, here in Canada we probably have the least to worry about and some of the least exposure in our every day lives to this kind of pollution in the urban world.

We hardly spend any time outside and the cold temperatures of our climate mean that the reaction rates and concentrations of these kinds of pollutants are probably incredibly low by international standards.

Our indoor air quality is far more important to our health than traffic pollution. I don't have data to back me up on this but I wouldn't be surprised if it is at least a factor of 1000. The quality of the air inside your car is probably some of the worst air in the city.
 
I have spent a great deal of time on the major highways in Toronto in the last decade. Unfortunately, I've wasted away countless days (it adds up to months probably, to be honest) sitting in traffic and I dare say there should be a ban on throughbound truck traffic during the day. Or forced redirections to the 407. I know a lot of the trucks travelling some of these routes (well, probably all but the 401) are locally originating or terminating trips, but the amount of truck traffic at some points in the day and the slowing effect it has on the highways is immense. Mind-boggling even and I know that a great deal of it (especially on the 401) is through traffic.

There have to be restrictions on throughbound truck traffic. No, it won't kill jobs. No, it isn't bad for the economy. Businesses are run by people. People are good at adapting.
 
Not surprised about Eglinton and Don Mills. That intersection is just constantly a gridlock of cars going back hundreds of meters stalling as they wait to turn south on Don Mills or East/West on Eglinton.

Also, is this another reason to remove the eastern Gardiner?
Why just the eastern GaRrdiner? It does not matter for the people living in the vicinty of the western Gardiner?
 
Why just the eastern GaRrdiner? It does not matter for the people living in the vicinty of the western Gardiner?
There's official proposals to remove the Gardiner east of Jarvis. There are none for the west.

The piece proposed for removal is both the widest piece (8 lanes versus 6 lanes), and is the least used (because it was supposed to handle both the traffic heading north to the DVP and heading east on the Gardiner to Coxwell, up a new expressway paralleling Coxwell, and then along an expressway paralleling/near the GO Tracks out to Kingston Road/401.

The piece proposed for removal isn't really essential for rush hour. Who coming from the west stays on past Jarvis? And most coming from the north get off at Richmond/Adelaide. It's more for through traffic, and perhaps a few who work in the Queens Quay/Yonge area and commute up the DVP.
 

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