The Social Cost of Transportation in Bergamo Local Economy

Air pollutant is a family of different compounds having different characteristics.
Pollutants are suspending in the air with different characteristics and there are other factors affecting the measured ambient concentration in different period of time throughout the year. They are dangerous because they can penetrate any indoor area such as bedroom, office or car.

An important note about air quality study is that the ambient concentration may not simply reflect the emission. The source of pollutant has to be considered in a spatial concept cooperating with the time effect. «Ambient concentrations of pollutants are correlated with emissions, but the contribution to ambient air quality of on-road mobile sources is not necessarily equal to their contribution to regional emissions. This is true for several reasons such as the distribution of other pollution sources and regional topology, as well as meteorology.»

Lyons (2003) summarized that «motor vehicular transport is a primary cause of the observed decline in urban air quality and the significance of motor vehicle use is increasing in many urban areas through rising traffic volumes, despite vehicle emission controls and/or stabilizing or declining industrial emissions. This is particularly significant for developing countries, where the rapid rates of both and growth in vehicle fleet are expected to be the highest in the world.»

As the growth in vehicle fleet is not limited in developing country, especially in other transportation mode beside motor vehicle, such as train and plane. Urban air pollution problem is alarming also in Europe. Great amount of EU population is found to be living under an excessive exposure to air pollution, with respect to both EU standards and WTO guidelines. The percentage of population in danger of excessive exposure of ozone and PM is overwhelming.