A primary school driven initiative to influence commuting style for dropping-off and picking-up of pupils

The use of cars for drop-off and pick-up of pupils from schools is a potential cause of pollution hotspots at school premises. Employing a joint execution of smart sensing technology and citizen science approach, a primary school took an initiative to co-design a study with local community and researchers to generate data and provide information to understand the impact on pollution levels and identify possible mitigation measures. This study was aimed to assess the hotspots of vehicle-generated particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM_2.5) and ≤10 μm (PM₁₀) at defined drop-off/pick-up points and its ingress into a nearby naturally ventilated primary school classroom. Five different locations were selected inside school premises for measurements during two peak hours: morning (MP; 0730-0930 h; local time), evening (EP; 1400-1600 h), and off-peak (OP; 1100-1300 h) hours for comparison. These represent PM measurements at the main road, pick-up point at the adjoining road, drop-off point, a classroom, and the school playground. Additional measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂) were taken simultaneously inside and outside (drop-off point) the classroom to understand its build-up and ingress of outdoor PM. The results demonstrated nearly a three-fold increase in the concentrations of fine particles (PM_2.5) during drop-off hours compared to off-peak hours indicated the dominant contribution of car queuing in the school premises. Coarse particles (PM_2.5-10) were prevalent in the school playground, while the contribution of fine particles as a result of traffic congestion became more pronounced during drop-off hours. In the naturally ventilated classroom, the changes in indoor PM_2.5 concentrations during both peak hours (0.58 < R² < 0.67) were followed by the outdoor concentration at the drop-off point. This initiative resulted in valuable information that might be used to influence school commuting style and raise other important issues such as the generally fairly high PM_2.5 concentrations in the playground and future classroom ventilation plans.