In Atlanta, it’s getting hot and traffic is coming back, which means air quality will go downhill.
Still, if it seemed like this spring the air was better while so many people were sheltering in place, that’s because it was, at least in some respects.
In March, people started staying home because of the coronavirus. In April, it became mandatory statewide. And that had a dramatic effect on traffic.
On the Perimeter, for example, before the shutdown, there were about 217,000 vehicles a day, according to JPB Senior Fellow Christina Fuller, a public health and air pollution expert at Georgia State. After the governor’s shelter-in-place order, the number came down to about 133,000 a day, she said. Read more.