A social and spatial analysis of emissions from private vehicle use in Great Britain

Chatterton, Tim; Barnes, Jo

Abstract

This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves away from traditional approaches which have allocated emissions to point of use, or by journey purpose. Instead, emissions will be attributed spatially to the people responsible for cars that cause the emissions, highlighting how both structural features (such as poor accessibility) or lifestyle choices (such as a preference for large vehicles) impact on air pollution.
In 2010, the UK Department for Transport began making available data from the motor vehicle test (MOT) database. This data provides information on vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, including: make, model, engine size, fuel type and a date and odometer reading for when the test was undertaken. From these last two, it is possible to estimate an annual mileage for nearly every motor vehicle in Great Britain. Using this data it is possible to create both an emissions profile for each individual vehicle, and subsequently an estimate of the total emissions over a year. This data is then linked with a privileged-access dataset from the UK Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to allow privately owned vehicles to be separated from commercial vehicles, and then to link vehicles to the location of the registered keeper via small area census geographies (~700 households, ~1600 people).
Using this data, we undertake an analysis of variations in responsibility for motor vehicle emissions both spatially, in terms of geographic spread and level of urbanisation, and socially, through income data and social profiles, created by the UK Office for National Statistics, for each area.

Citation

Chatterton, T., & Barnes, J. (2016). A social and spatial analysis of emissions from private vehicle use in Great Britain. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 207, 99-110. https://doi.org/10.2495/AIR160101

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Conference Name: 24th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution
• Conference Location: Crete, Greece
• Start Date: Jun 20, 2016
• End Date: Jun 22, 2016
• Acceptance Date: May 16, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: May 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2016
• Journal: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment
• Print ISSN: 1746-448X
• Publisher: WIT Press
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 207
• Pages: 99-110
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2495/AIR160101
• Keywords: environmental justice, air pollution, emissions, transport, exposure, MOT, census, demographic, car ownership, poverty
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/910207
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/AIR160101
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Air Pollution XXIV, Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution, Greece, 20-22 June 2016