Robin9 wrote:

;155394 Wrote:
In article
nal-septembe
r.org, (Recliner) wrote:
-
Quote:

The government was today accused of _dragging its feet while Londoners
choke_ on toxic air.

Campaign group ClientEarth launched the attack on ministers on the
first
anniversary of its Supreme Court victory which forced the Government to
beef up its masterplan to tackle nitrogen dioxide pollution.

The environmental lawyers also published a list of 20 pollution
blackspots
where filthy air far exceeds EU limits.

They include Putney High Street, in south west London, where the
average
NO2 concentration level was 133 micrograms per cubic metre between
January
1 and April 27, according to monitoring by King_s College London, with
EU
regulations saying this score should not be more than 40.-

It's been a terrible pollution blackspot all my life. Never did me any
harm in the 1960s G.

What could be done about it though? It's a main approach to a Thames
bridge that is also the main local shopping street.

Dig a tunnel? Knock all the shops and nearby houses down and create a
bigger
Exchange shopping centre away from the road? It's hardly going to be
practical to sharply reduce the traffic on the high Street is it?
-
Brixton Road in Lambeth had an average reading so far this year of 128.

While Euston Road in Camden, Marylebone Road in Westminster, and Earls
Court Road in Kensington and Chelsea were all on 86.

Continues, with map:

-
http://tinyurl.com/jz83aw3
r-in-london-a3236611.html


I imagine most "regulars" here can predict what my opinion is.
Stop preventing traffic from moving. By far the biggest reason
air quality in London has deteriorated so much since we've had
a Mayor is that both Mayors and TfL - with the enthusiastic
support of some anti-motor car local authorities - have done
everything they can to frustrate motorists.

The evidence of/for this is overwhelming. Oxford Street, where
car owners are banned until after 19.00 hours has the worst air
pollution, and this cannot be blamed on private motorists.

No, but it's full of idling diesel buses and taxis. And it's actually
neither the worst spot, nor getting worse:

"Oxford Street had a level of 104, which was a fall from 135 last year.

Experts believe this is significantly due to the use of cleaner buses,
including more operating in electric mode."


TfL has
boasted repeatedly that the "congestion charge" had reduced the
number of cars in Central London, yet air pollution is far worse than
twenty years ago.

Is it? I think we're much more aware of it now, but the actual levels are
probably less than then. I used to drive into London regularly in the
period up to the mid-1990s, and the smog was worse then than now.


The basic logic is bone simple. A car exhaust emits fumes from the
moment the engine is switched on until the moment it is switched
off.

That's not true of the increasing number of stop-start cars, nor hybrids or
EVs. So the problem is reducing.


Therefore, the longer the engine is running, the worse its affect
on air quality. If the powers-that-be change roads in such a way
that car journeys last longer, car engines will be running longer and
there will be more air pollution.

The big cause of urban pollution is diesel engines, whether in buses,
taxis, vans or cars. So you could blame Gordon Brown for changing the VED
system to favour diesel vehicles.


I note with utter contempt that none of the fashion-following
major candidates for Mayor has mentioned this elementary point
although they all pretend to be concerned about air quality.

Clearly some alleviation of the damage done by past and future
Mayors and TfL can be achieved by cleaner vehicles, particularly
hybrids and all-electric cars. But anyone genuinely interested in
tackling London's very serious air problem - as opposed to
to pretending to be - must start by changing the roads back to
how they were 16 years ago.

I don't think the cycle 'superhighways' will be painted over, so the loss
of traffic lanes is permanent. And surely those cyclists will contribute
more to cleaner air than the same lanes full of even free-flowing traffic.