An Update from Sam Milsom

As part of the work that our friends at Open Data Manchester are doing with Our Streets Chorlton, we will be hosting a number of monthly ‘Data Chats’; friendly and informal spaces where we’ll explore some of the data about Chorlton that we and our local volunteers have been collecting.

We’ll talk about what the data tells us (and what it doesn’t tell us), explore any interesting patterns or any questions that might arise. The aim is to get our community talking about the data that is about us – some of which we have helped to collect ourselves!

June’s Data Chat took place on the evening of Wednesday 16 June via Zoom. To start with, a discussion on the May data bulletin that ODM published as part of our School Street Week, focusing on activity around Barlow Hall Primary School took place.

We discussed the two Telraam traffic counters located on Darley Avenue, and how the total traffic count for April was so much higher than May (Barlow Moor Road was closed for resurfacing and so the road was used as a diversion).

Also, we discussed the creation of the highly localised Air Quality Index for Darley Avenue, using data gathered from our calibrated EarthSense Zephyr AQ monitors.

It was discussed that air quality is actually very complex and there are many factors that can affect readings, including the weather and other stratospheric factors. However, we were able to demonstrate short-term but highly localised spikes of particulate matters which occurred when a car was observed idling its engine outside the school.

That said, the air quality on Darley Avenue is generally very good, and we tend to see higher levels of pollution from our monitor located at the Four Banks interchange. Given one is located on a busy interchange, and one on a quiet residential road – this is perhaps unsurprising!

The above index is made up of readings taken from an EarthSense Zephr air quality monitor installed on Darley Avenue. The index is worked out by measuring Nitrogen Monoxide (NO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3) and Particulate Matters (PM1, PM2.5 & PM10). We then used DEFRA’s Daily Air Quality Index to determine the result and scale.

Our next data chat will take place on Wednesday 21 July at 7pm via Zoom. Although the topic is TBC, there will likely be a presentation on the data collected from our roadside traffic counts, carried out by our team of community Data Champions.

Register for the next data chat.

If you have any questions or want to drop us a line, head to our contact page on the website!