Glasgow Low Emission Zone Impact

Every day, hundreds of thousands of vehicles travel through Glasgow's streets, making it one of Scotland's busiest urban transport networks. With nearly 240,000 licensed vehicles recorded in 2021, increasing traffic has contributed to congestion and rising levels of harmful air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (NO₂) and particulate matter generated by vehicle emissions, tyres, brakes, and road wear.

To tackle these challenges, Glasgow introduced a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in the city centre on 1 June 2023, restricting access to the most polluting vehicles. The policy marked a significant step towards improving urban air quality, but an important question remained: Has the LEZ made a measurable difference?

Working with UBDC, researchers Yue Li and Qunshan Zhao set out to answer this question using Glasgow's rich collection of open data. By bringing together publicly available traffic counts and air quality monitoring data, they investigated how the city's transport network and environmental conditions changed before and after the LEZ came into effect.

Their findings demonstrate the power of open data to evaluate real-world policy outcomes. While traffic volumes across much of the city centre remained relatively stable, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations decreased, providing evidence that cleaner vehicle regulations can improve air quality without significantly disrupting traffic flow.

This project showcases how the UBDC's commitment to open urban data enables researchers to transform complex datasets into actionable insights for policymakers, city planners, and communities. Through interactive visualisations and accessible analysis, the project highlights the role of data-driven research in supporting healthier, more sustainable cities and demonstrates how open data can help shape the future of urban environments.

‍Full paper:   

https://findingspress.org/article/123382-did-the-implementation-of-low-emission-zone-in-glasgow-change-the-traffic-flow-and-air-quality 

Beyond the original LEZ research in Glasgow, we are also actively working on a sister project called Sensing Gorbals, to explore how the establishment of the LEZ influences the community’s outdoor and indoor climate in Gorbals, which is at the fringe of LEZ and was the previous urban slum area in Glasgow.

You can read more on Sensing Gorbals here

 Researchers

Dr Qunshan Zhao

‍Dr Yue Li

Dr Ye tian (University College Dublin)

Dr Hyesop Shin (University of Auckland)

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