A new app in development at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at Dublin City University could offer pedestrians and cyclists a 17.87 per cent reduction in pollution exposure, initial tests have shown.
The team at DCU used data analysis; refining and supplementing the publicly available Google Air Quality dataset for Dublin; to build a database capable of suggesting green travel routes for those travelling the city.
Primarily intended for cyclists sharing the road with cars, users can enter pollutants they wish to avoid into the app. User preferences are then fed into an algorithm which calculates a route using the dataset. Users are then shown their quickest, and least polluted, routes on an interactive map.
The team carried out a number of experiments using the app and found that in most cases, the rate of pollutants avoided exceeds the rate of distance increase. The app offers a trade-off between pollution and trip distance.
