3 ms·

> "Conclusions ... don't ride the buses is probably an early and obvious one." Yes, the air quality on London buses is consistently terrible on cold days. Ther

> "Conclusions ... don't ride the buses is probably an early and obvious one." Yes, the air quality on London buses is consistently terrible on cold days. There is very little ventilation in those buses other than "open the windows", and when it gets cold people don't do that. Often it seems like you're not only breathing in everyone else's food smells and stinky breath, but road fumes and dust as well.

dzhiurgis 4y ago
Do brits also have “cold air and draft causes common cold” too?
- Arbortheus 4y ago
  Yes, but it's something your grandparents might say rather than a widely held belief. I think people nowadays are clever enough to know that colds are a transmissible infection.
  - Reason077 4y ago
    Yeah. But most bus passengers still dislike being cold more than they dislike stale air. So most of the windows are usually closed.
    - MichaelCollins 4y ago
      CO2 clouds the mind and impairs judgement. Dressing inappropriately for the season is probably a symptom of this. People would dress more appropriately for the weather if they got more fresh air in the winter.
  - dzhiurgis 4y ago
    Typical response here is “but cold air weakens immunity“!
Litost 4y ago
It's also possible that air quality on the London Tube is much worse than the bus, at least for particulate matter: "Researchers found that a person travelling on a bus for two and a half hours was exposed to a third of what they would be travelling on the Tube for just an hour." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/air-pollution-london-underground-tube-worse-than-above-ground-a8721586.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/air-pollutio... EDIT: Regarding CO2 levels, there's a 2018 FOI request which seems to imply it wasn't monitored back then, but was within regulatory limits though I'm not sure I'd want to travel on the tube more often than necessary? "The regulatory limits for CO2 are 5000 parts per million (ppm) for 8 hours time weighted equivalent or a short term exposure limit (15 minutes) of 15000ppm." https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-0540-1819 https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-informa...
- Reason077 4y ago
  I’ve lived in London long enough to remember the “black snot” you’d get after riding on the Tube (especially the Northern Line!) back in the early 2000s. They’ve done a lot to improve ventilation, and reduce dust from train brakes, in recent years. The air certainly smells and feels a lot fresher and healthier on the extensively-ventilated Tube compared to on crowded buses with little or no ventilation at all.

dzhiurgis 4y ago

Do brits also have “cold air and draft causes common cold” too?

Arbortheus 4y ago
Yes, but it's something your grandparents might say rather than a widely held belief. I think people nowadays are clever enough to know that colds are a transmissible infection.
- Reason077 4y ago
  Yeah. But most bus passengers still dislike being cold more than they dislike stale air. So most of the windows are usually closed.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    CO2 clouds the mind and impairs judgement. Dressing inappropriately for the season is probably a symptom of this. People would dress more appropriately for the weather if they got more fresh air in the winter.
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  Typical response here is “but cold air weakens immunity“!

Litost 4y ago

It's also possible that air quality on the London Tube is much worse than the bus, at least for particulate matter: "Researchers found that a person travelling on a bus for two and a half hours was exposed to a third of what they would be travelling on the Tube for just an hour." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/air-pollution-london-underground-tube-worse-than-above-ground-a8721586.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/air-pollutio... EDIT: Regarding CO2 levels, there's a 2018 FOI request which seems to imply it wasn't monitored back then, but was within regulatory limits though I'm not sure I'd want to travel on the tube more often than necessary? "The regulatory limits for CO2 are 5000 parts per million (ppm) for 8 hours time weighted equivalent or a short term exposure limit (15 minutes) of 15000ppm." https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-0540-1819 https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-informa...

Reason077 4y ago
I’ve lived in London long enough to remember the “black snot” you’d get after riding on the Tube (especially the Northern Line!) back in the early 2000s. They’ve done a lot to improve ventilation, and reduce dust from train brakes, in recent years. The air certainly smells and feels a lot fresher and healthier on the extensively-ventilated Tube compared to on crowded buses with little or no ventilation at all.