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PM2.5 can spread farther from the freeway and last longer than ultrafine particles, but both are pollutants with health risks. The researchers measured ultrafine particles (less than 0.1 microns in diameter), which are key indicators of real-time traffic levels, and also fine particulate matter known as "PM2.5" (less than 2.5 microns in diameter), which includes tailpipe emissions and new particles created when the emissions interact with the atmosphere. "We measured fresh emissions: pollutants that come directly from cars. "The effect was gone by the next week," Paulson said.
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But to get a regional effect, the researchers said, you need a regional drop in traffic, like what Los Angeles saw during the first Carmageddon - and it doesn't last if traffic returns. The research gives a peek at what the air would look like in a healthier Los Angeles with a vast majority of hybrid and electric vehicles and shows how quickly less driving can improve key measures of air quality. It was a really eye-opening glimpse of what the future could be like if we can move away from combustion engines." "Our measurements in Santa Monica were almost below what our instruments could detect, and the regional effect was significant. "The air was amazingly clean that weekend," Paulson said. While the researchers expected cleaner air, they didn't expect the improvement to be so dramatic. The study was led by two professors at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability: Yifang Zhu, who is also an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and Suzanne Paulson, who is also a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. 28, UCLA researchers report that they measured air pollutants during last year's Carmageddon (July 15-17) and found that when 10 miles of the 405 closed, air quality near the shuttered portion improved within minutes, reaching levels 83 percent better than on comparable weekends.īecause traffic dipped all over Southern California that weekend, air quality also improved 75 percent in parts of West Los Angeles and Santa Monica and an average of 25 percent regionally - from Ventura to Yucaipa, and Long Beach to Santa Clarita. “One thing about Angelenos, if they are experts at nothing else, they are experts at traffic.In study findings announced Sept. “People have more obligations in September,” he said. Yaroslavsky said he thought that in the end “there will probably be a little more traffic than there was in July of 2011.”’ “If everyone reacts by saying that these were false claims last time and just jumps on the road, it could be a disaster,” he said. Wachs said he thought the city would escape once again, he did not rule out the worst-case situation.
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It is hard not to sympathize with the frustration of city officials trying to figure out how to deal with it this time. “We are not lowballing it,” the mayor said As part of the project to add car pool lanes to the 405, two bridge columns must be removed: only one was removed last time. Transportation officials say that will be almost impossible this time because the scope of work is greater. Last year, the highway opened 17 hours earlier than scheduled when contractors beat their own deadline. On the Saturday night of Carmageddon II, Plácido Domingo is performing in “The Two Foscari” at the Los Angeles Opera, and the following evening Wilco is at the Hollywood Bowl.
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This one is at the end of September, when most people are back at work or in school and the city is in full swing. Carmageddon I was in mid-July, when many people are out of town and Los Angeles operates in a lower gear. There are reasons to think that this year’s closing has even higher risks than the last one. Kajon Cermak, a traffic reporter for KCRW radio in Santa Monica, said Carmageddon II “is a nonissue” for most people. “I think Angelenos realize how high the stakes are and the role they can play against the traffic nightmare,” he said. “What we are trying to point out is that the reason we had no big deal last summer is everybody stayed home,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a member of the county Board of Supervisors. Still, city officials remain nervous that what they headed off last time is waiting up the highway, that the 500,000 motorists who use the 405 every weekend will be lulled into complacency by last year’s nonevent. “So the most logical thing to do is appeal to their sense of cooperation and their willingness to make a contribution to a cooperative good rather than threatening them with a disaster that is not likely to happen.” “Threats that it’s going to be bumper to bumper are going to be taken as empty threats: people experienced what happened last time and saw that wasn’t the case,” said Martin Wachs, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation and one of the authors of the report.