We had a wonderful evening yesterday when we gave a presentation at Camcycle’s monthly meeting. We are also doing an inventory to make sure we know how many sensor kits we have. The sensors that we built are all working but still need to be secured in their boxes. Some of them will go directly to Scotland to the Highland Cycling Campaign and we are already looking forward to the data they will collect.
The Camcycle meeting
Yesterday, we spoke at the Camcycle meeting about the CamBike Sensor project and also did some new data analysis where we focused on Mill Road (do check out their website about a vision for Mill Road at www.camcycle.org.uk/blog/2018/08/our-vision-for-mill-road/).
We found quite a few interesting points! In the morning, our volunteers avoided Mill Road completely (maybe because the traffic is slow?). Instead they apparently used the bridge at the station, but the PM levels there are actually the worst of the whole area!
Mill Road then gets busy around lunchtime. Something interesting happens between 3 and 6 pm, when parents pick up their children from school. The worst levels can at this time be found close to a primary school on Tenison Road! This is probably due to parents waiting in their cars with the engines running. Our data therefore confirms what lots of campaigners for clean air have called for. There are for example two interesting articles about that issue in the Guardian and the Independent.
The PM levels directly on Mill Road are also higher during rush hour than at noon. Below, you can see 4 maps (one that shows the average of all times of day and the 3 others that were just mentioned).
We would like to thank all our volunteers and everyone who supported the project so far and we wish you a happy new year!