Simulating the impact of urban transport infrastructure design on local air quality in Beijing

Urban transport infrastructure can result in the physical, psychological and environmental separation of neighborhoods, public space and pedestrian network, leading to negative impacts on citizens’ daily commutes, social activities and health. In this paper, we simulate the impacts of road network design on individual activity patterns, travel mode choices and air pollution using an agent-based model. The simulation model is applied to a case study in Beijing and the air pollution heat maps are produced for road network designs comparing with the real-time pollution data. This illustrates the potential value of such simulation models which generate activities for a given urban layout and transport network, and shows how human behavior can impact air quality