Documentation / Online Handbook
| Traffic |   |
| Berlin |
Description of the Problem
With the rise in traffic volumes during the past decades, motor vehicle (mv) traffic has caused increasingly serious problems and pollution in many environmental fields. Two of the most intensive influences of traffic concern the considerable threat to health by near ground air pollution and traffic noise in roadside development or green areas. More and more instruments and regulations for the reduction of air pollution emitted by heating systems and by industrial and commercial sources have been passed through parliament in the last ten years. On the other hand, the rise in road traffic volumes and the lack of effective instruments makes air pollution by traffic the main problem now. The highest concentrations of most pollutants are therefore observed near the sources--in the street canyons of the cities.
The traffic situation in Berlin can be characterised by the following figures:
| - public traffic system | 27.1 |
| - individual motor traffic | 43.0 |
| - pedestrians | 22.7 |
| - bicycles | 7.2 |
The first investigations on air pollution caused by traffic in Berlin were carried out as early as 1969. To get impressions about the actual level and the development of air pollution caused by traffic within the Berlin monitoring system, first two container stations were installed in busy streets with closed lines of buildings on both sides. Another container station just beside the city highway with a total number of 155.000 vehicles per day was also installed. These activities were enlarged in the following years and accompanied by mobile stations, contractors, further special measurements, and also calculations (see section on data sources).
The assessment of air pollution by traffic received a legal basis only in 1985, when in the EU directive 85/203/EEC (content: nitrogen dioxide in air ), guide and limit values were published as law in all countries of the European Union. For the first time, this directive requires special measurements in street canyons and near top traffic levels. The next step in reducing air pollution from traffic was the German Ordinance on Air Pollution by Traffic (23. BImSchV). The ordinance lays down concentration levels for air pollution by the carcinogenic compounds Elemental Carbon (EC), benzene, and also NOx on certain roads or in certain areas in which particularly high pollution from traffic can be expected. If these levels are exceeded, measures prescribed in the Federal Emission Control Law are to be considered.
Since the beginning of the 90s, several EU directives fixed emissions limits for new cars (passenger, but also heavy duty cars), which led to a reduction in air pollution caused by single vehicles. Nevertheless, because of the increasing total number of cars in Berlin, the actual situation and also the trends for the above-mentioned compounds benzene, EC, and NOx, show that there has been no effective success in reducing these compartments in the air. Actually, 80 % of all emissions in street canyons are caused by traffic. The measurements and simulations show that for more than 18 % of the primary road network of Berlin (1,150 km), there is a serious necessity for further investigations into the air pollutants mentioned in the "German Ordinance on Air Pollution by Traffic." Taking into consideration the new environmental targets fixed in the just prepared "Berlin City Development Plan Traffic" (reduction to 20 % of the official values of 23.BImSchV in 2010) and a real scenario for the future, more than 80 % of the primary road network will belong to high soot pollution in 2010.
Quite the same situation occurs in the field of noise pollution. Actually, extreme loads over 80 dB(A) during the day were measured for one segment of the primary road network a kilometer long; load levels between 65 and 70 db(A) occur most frequently (760 km), that is 42 %. If one sets a basic level of 65 dB(A), which can be seen, according to current noise research, as a threshold for increased heart attack risk, then 1,270 km of built-up roadsides, or 70 %, could be seen as excessively polluted.
Also, pollution due to noise in recreation areas harms people’s well-being. Many of the 120 parks in Berlin, but also large parts of the urban recreational areas, are so noise polluted that their usefulness is greatly limited. That means that only dramatic action plans and guidelines will lead to a chance of reducing (air and noise) pollution caused by traffic to such a degree that the threshold values of the German Ordinance regarding these environmental targets are no longer exceeded.
Some of these necessary ideas and guide-lines are:
Data Sources
BLUME, Berlin’s air quality network, has guaranteed continuous air quality monitoring since 1975 to measure the air pollution for licensing of plants according to the TA Luft (Technical Instruction of Air Quality Control):
In 1997 two of the twenty-one containers were installed in busy streets with closed buildings beside them and the other just beside the city highway with measuring devices for SO2, NO and NOx, CO, O3, HC (Hydrocarbons), dust (PM 10), benzene and soot. From 1990 to 1994, measurements were taken using mobile stations at ten sites near the roads considered possible hot spots. Learning from these results, Berlin’s plan for the future is to install two more container stations in street canyons (between curbside and footpath) and thirty cheap, active 7-day samplers for the traffic-caused substances benzene and EC, completed by passive samplers for NOx, which are installed at street lamps.
To obtain more detailed information at as low a cost as possible, measurements are combined with screening calculation models (as recommended in the 23BImSchV). With the so-called IMMIS-Luft (the screening version of the CPB-model), the air pollution in 3,500 segments of the primary road network in Berlin was calculated in several scenarios and trends. After this screening check and following a comparison with the measured sites, it will be necessary to measure in the future the air pollution in a number of typical streets and to monitor the trends in air pollution during the next ten years.
Emissions databases for the primary polluter group traffic are maintained in order to provide a differentiated evaluation of the main polluted segments of the street system in Berlin. All data are based on the survey results for the main network for 1993 by the Berlin Department of Construction, Housing and Transport. The resulting average daily traffic load (DTV) forms the basis for the calculation. Noise emissions as well as air pollution emissions were calculated with a framework of emissions models based on the guideline Noise Abatement on Roads resp. the TA Luft (Technical Instruction of Air Quality Control).
Methods
All data from road traffic pollution belong to grid or line information (street system). The decision of which method to use depends on the type of themes and data, e.g. whether they are representative only for the measurement point or for a local or more regional area. The data from the calculated 1 x 1 km-emissions are presented both as colour grid as well as absolute value. The total length of the entire Berlin road network is some 5,200 km. 1,228 km of that, about a quarter, belongs to the primary road network. This main network is divided into some 7,000 road segments. Their traffic volume, air pollution, and noise parameter were recorded. The results for these lines rsp. for the built-up road segments (belonging to noise effects) are shown in the maps. The calculation model IMMIS-Luft used, in addition, urban settlement parameters like the housing structure along these segments to estimate the amounts of the selected pollutants. These results are also shown in the maps. For typical and highly polluted streets, results for the actual and "2010" pollution are shown for special points (for example at traffic crossings).
Results
In the Berlin Environmental Atlas, maps for five themes have so far been published or will soon be published in a printed form and are also available on the Inter- and Intranet: traffic volume; traffic noise in green and open spaces; traffic noise in roadside developments; traffic-caused air pollution by NO, benzene and soot; traffic-caused air pollution by hydrocarbons.
All methods and results are documented in detailed texts; the digital methods and proceedings are available in special data banks. With this information, the main air- and noise-polluted green areas rsp. streets are named.
With this information, the main pollutants of the near ground atmosphere in streets and street segments for the green-area noise pollution are named. The development of benzene, NO, and soot (EC) can be compared from the 1993 to the projected 2010 levels. It is shown where threshold values of air pollution or guidelines for noise levels are exceeded, as well as the total number of vehicles, e.g. the greatest concentration in Europe of vehicles on an inner-city highway segment is near Berlin’s International Congress Centre.
Uses
With these maps, there will be good material available in order for experts and the public to take part in the hopefully increasing debate about the threats and dangers of rising traffic volumes.
| Results | Analysis and evaluation methods | Data | ||||||
| inventory maps / cadastral register | Complex summarising / interpolation maps | reference area / resolution / scale | analogical / digital result | calculation steps and spatial depiction | main parameter | Other necessary data | Temporal distribution of data collection | survey unit scale |
| Traffic volumes | all Berlin and surrounding area of the State of Brandenburg. In Berlin reference area is the primary road network with 2900 road segments (1,200 km of streets) 1:50000 |
analog map 07.01 EA digital map EIS Berlin |
Analysis of the
average traffic volume with two different mean values: the average daily traffic volume (DTV) and the average weekday traffic (DTV-Wt), which is shown on the map. Calculation of the seasonal, weekly and daily fluctuation. Evaluation/representation of the assessment volume is divided in 11 classes, highest class above 100,000 DTV-Wt extreme loads over 100,000 are named beside the segments. |
traffic volume (average weekday traffic) | The data are based on traffic
counts in 1992/1993, the measure-ments were taken on Mondays and Thursdays between March and November, except during school vacation period. At the long term measurement points counts are under-taken continuously. Further essential significance: seasonal, daily and weekly fluctuation. |
2,900 road segments of the primary road network representing all data from the street traffic counts | ||
| Traffic noise in Roadside Development | all Berlin, reference area is the built-up primary road network with 5400 count cross-sections and 900
km of streets. 1:50000 |
analog map 07.02 EA
only day digital map EIS Berlin day and night |
Analysis of the
average traffic volume with two different mean values: the average daily traffic volume (DTV) and the average weekday traffic (DTV-Wt) Further parameters are taken into account (see column ‘other data’) to calculate a ‘equivalent constant sound volume’; Evaluation/representation of the assessment volumes is divided in 7 classes, highest class above the extreme load over 80 dB(A), the exact amounts are named beside the segments. |
traffic noise in roadside development at day (6-22:00) and night | speed of vehicles , percentage of trucks, road surface and quality, distance between road and buildings, height and type of roadside construction, reflection conditions, traffic schedule of the tram network. | The data are based on traffic counts in 1992/1993, the measurements were taken on Mondays and Thursdays between March and November, except during school vacation period | 5,400 road segments of the built-up primary road network representing all data from the street traffic noise data base. | |
| Traffic noise in Green and Open spaces | parts of Berlin, green and open
spaces, 2,900 segments of the primary road network 1:50000 |
analog map 07.03 EA digital map EIS Berlin |
Analysis of the
average traffic volume with two different mean values: the average daily traffic volume (DTV) and the average weekday traffic (DTV-Wt). Further parameters are taken into account (see column ‘other data’) to calculate zones of evaluation levels (mean levels) for the forests and 120 green areas (calculation by hand). The data were ascertained by on-the-spot investigations and evaluations on maps. Representation of the assessment volumes is divided in 6 classes, highest class above the extreme ‘Alert’ value above 65 dB(A). The roads are also divided into 4 classes of mean noise levels. |
traffic noise on streets and in forests and green areas during daytime (6-22:00) | Permissible maximum speed, surface and condition of the roadway, mean distance of the road from roadside development, kind and mean altitude of roadside development (open/closed) traffic lights, noise prevention walls or extended mounds | The data are based on traffic counts in 1992, the measurements were taken on Mondays and Thursdays between March and November, except during school vacation period | 5,400 road segments of the built-up primarily road network representing all data from the street traffic noise data banks; forests and 120 green and open spaces | |
| Air pollution by traffic through HC | all Berlin, grids an road system, 1:200000 |
9 analog maps, 03.09
EA 9 digital maps EIS Berlin. |
Analysis of the
average traffic volume in the primary road network, assessment for all additional streets and summarizing results in a 1x1 km grid for the total street
network; further parameters (see column ‘other data’) for the Emission Simulation Model are taken into account to estimate the HC and benzene emissions from vehicle exhausts and evaporation. location and technical equipment of all petrol stations to estimate their HC emissions. |
Hydrocarbon and benzene | Additional parameters necessary
for the Emission Cataster: e.g.: - emission factors, - seasonal, weekly and daily fluctuation of the vehicle fleet - schedule for the public transport system - combination of the vehicle fleet (passenger cars, heavy duty loads, busses) - location and technical equipment of 340 petrol stations. |
The data are based on traffic counts in 1992/1993, additional research for the public transport system. | 2,900 segments of the primary road network, 1,100 grids of 1x1 km for the total road network, 340 grids for the emissions from petrol stations. |
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| Air pollution by traffic through NO, Benzene and Soot | all Berlin, grids an road system, 14 single points 1:200000 |
9 analog maps, 03.10
EA 9 digital maps EIS Berlin |
Analysis of the
average traffic volume in the primarily road network, Assessment for all additional
streets and summarizing results in a 1x1 km grid for the total street network; further parameters (see column ‘other data’) for the Emission Simulation Model are taken into account to estimate the HC and benzene emissions from vehicle exhausts and evaporation. Application of the IMMIS-Luft simulation model to calculate the actual and 2010 emissions of benzene at 14 hot-spots |
NO, Benzene, Soot | Additional parameters necessary
for the Emission Cadaster and the Emission Simulation Model : e.g.: - emission factors, - seasonal, weekly and daily fluctuation of the vehicle fleet - schedule for the public transport system -combination of the vehicle fleet (passenger cars, heavy duty loads, busses) - scenario for the technical progress and the development of total amount and distribution of vehicles until 2010s |
measurements at the air quality
network-stations: registration: continuously every three minutes application of the model only for special situations |
2,900 segments of the primary road network, 1,100 grids of 1x1 km for the total road network, 14 hot spots of traffic caused emissions |
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