Carbon monoxide exposures inside an automobile traveling on an urban arterial highway

Carbon monoxide (CO) exposures were measured inside a motor vehicle during 88 standardized drives on a major urban arterial highway, El Camino Real (traffic volume of 30,500-45,000 vehicles per day), over a 13-1/2 month period. On each trip (lasting between 31 and 61 minutes), the test vehicle drove the same 5.9-mile segment of roadway in both directions, for a total of 11.8 miles, passing through 20 intersections with traffic lights (10 in each direction) in three California cities (Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Los Altos). Earlier tests showed that the test vehicle was free of CO intrusion. For the 88 trips, the mean CO concentration was 9.8 ppm, with a standard deviation of 5.8 ppm. Of nine covariates that were examined to explain the variability in the mean CO exposures observed on the 88 trips (ambient CO at two fixed stations, atmospheric stability, seasonal trend function, time of day, average surrounding vehicle count, trip duration, proportion of time stopped at lights, and instrument type), a fairly strong seasonal trend was found. A model consisting of only a single measure of traffic volume and a seasonal trend component had substantial predictive power (R2 = 0.68); by contrast, the ambient CO levels, although partially correlated with average exposures, contributed comparatively little predictive power to the model. The CO exposures experienced while drivers waited at the red lights at an intersection ranged from 6.8 to 14.9 ppm and differed considerably from intersection to intersection.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)