Local Inequities in the Relative Production of and Exposure to Vehicular Air Pollution in Los Angeles

TL;DR

This study investigates how vehicular air pollution exposure in Los Angeles is unevenly distributed across different racial and socioeconomic groups, revealing disparities driven by historical infrastructure and segregation.

Contribution

It uncovers the relationship between local pollution production and exposure, highlighting racial and socioeconomic disparities and their historical roots in urban planning.

Findings

Less-driving areas face higher pollution exposure.

Non-White populations are disproportionately exposed to vehicular pollution.

White-majority areas' residents drive through non-White neighborhoods more often.

Abstract

Vehicular air pollution has created an ongoing air quality and public health crisis. Despite growing knowledge of racial injustice in exposure levels, less is known about the relationship between the production of and exposure to such pollution. This study assesses pollution burden by testing whether local populations' vehicular air pollution exposure is proportional to how much they drive. Through a Los Angeles, California case study we examine how this relates to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status -- and how these relationships vary across the region. We find that, all else equal, tracts whose residents drive less are exposed to more air pollution, as are tracts with a less-White population. Commuters from majority-White tracts disproportionately drive through non-White tracts, compared to the inverse. Decades of racially-motivated freeway infrastructure planning and residential segregation shape today's disparities in who produces vehicular air pollution and who is exposed to it, but opportunities exist for urban planning and transport policy to mitigate this injustice.