London Air Quality

Interesting little website for checking air quality around London

http://www.londonair.org.uk/LondonAir/Default.aspx

Seems we are between a green 1 at Catford and a red 4 in Brixton. Good site anon64893700, cheers.

Strangely mine shows an orange 5 for Brixton.

Indeed, now a red 5. I guess it updates constantly.

No worries, with all the talk of air quality I thought it was a good share.
And yes, regularly updated throughout the day.

Meanwhile…

I see Westminster Council is introducing 50% premium parking charges for diesel vehicles.

“Diesel car owners will pay an extra £2.45 per hour for a maximum stay of up to four hours.”

It seems perverse that the premium is applied when the car is parked and the engine is switched off. I could more readily understand charging cars on the move - e.g. commuting every day from Kent to the City of London - through Lewisham, and making no contribution except congestion, exhaust, and noise. If Lewisham is short of cash perhaps they could look at road charging. Westminster and City of London may have high air pollution but so does New Cross, Old Kent Road, Peckham, Forest Hill etc.

Well, at least some of the journey will have been through Westminster, unless the car was teleported into the parking space. And presumably the hope is that some of the journeys through other boroughs en route to Westminster would be reduced if fewer diesel cars were driven into Westminster (assuming the higher charge would put people off, although I don’t know that it would). Ultimately the aim must be to deter people from buying diesel cars.

I don’t think it’s fair, I think the parking charge option has probably been chosen because it’s relatively easy to administer. Rather like the different CPZ charges that some councils make according to engine type and size - regardless of how much driving the resident does in the Borough or elsewhere. It’s easy to charge for parking, more difficult to charge for road usage.

Remember, although diesel has very recently been regarded as a problem fuel, it’s not long ago that governments were promoting diesel cars for their fuel efficiency and low C02 emissions, Road diesel fuel is also much cleaner than it used to be before low-sulphur fuel became a legal requirement.

If only the same local govt leverage could be applied against diesel-chugging, often-idling black cabs. Let’s shift people into the clean hybrids of modern car transit systems like Uber and Lyft.

I was recently in California and saw that they encourage car-pooling by marking some road lanes with diamond shapes. These lanes are reserved for drivers who are car-pooling, and Uber Pool is very popular there. I grew to love Uber Pools - you avoid the guilt of hogging a whole vehicle, and get to meet some fun people along the way.

The diamond marked lanes wouldn’t work in London as we don’t have wide enough roads to make it workable. But I do think it’s time we allowed Ubers into taxi/bus lanes.

I suppose a lot of taxes work that way. Applied where they are easiest to collect. And it may well be opportunistic by Westminster, I’d be interested to know where the additional revenues raised will be spent. Adding a premium to diesel cars to the congestion charge seems like a good way to do it, but it still only taxes the vehicle on its behaviour at one given moment.

I don’t personally think it is especially unfair, and I speak as an owner of a fairly large diesel car. We switched to diesel when encouraged to do so by the government. Our current diesel, at 18 months old, is considerably cleaner and uses much better technology, reflected in the fact that it is fairly low in the road tax bands for a car of its type. So I could argue this extra parking tax is particularly unfair to me. But we have to do something about the air quality in London. As it happens I never drive into central London, but if I did and the parking charges became punitive, I think it might change that behaviour.

Needless to say our next car will not be a diesel.

If diesel cars are toxic, the we should phase them out. The Govt should advise manufacturers and importers that from X date the supply of new diesel cars will not be lawful. There is a lot of other stuff that could be done and some of it is happening: encourage infrastructure for electric vehicles, and alternative fuels. Why can I buy a new VW Golf in Europe that runs on LPG (liquid petroleum gas) but despite the ‘single market’ that model is not available in the UK?

The Govt seems to have its hands in its pockets. Local authorities ambushing car owners with random arbitrary parking charges in some areas, is not the solution.

That could work on motorways here.

I have a diesel car, it does not attract a road fund license as it has very low emissions. It kisses bunnies and hugs trees. Why should I be taxed for a vehicle which the government told me was an eco car? I mean, it even has a badge that says Eco for goodness sake.

The voice of reason
Amazing how stances change, and policies adapt.

Buy buy buy, pause for effect huge ownership achieved… punish, punish, punish.

You hit the nail very firmly on the head anon64893700. I also remember the government making a promise a few years ago that diesel would be kept at 10p a litre under petrol to help, well that didnt last.

This is all just another convenient eco argument. One they know will be fought on places like this, but unlikely to receive any steep objection.
Lulled into buying into a promising tech, then dumped on.

People against vehicles will stick to the “well don’t drive” stance. People who need to drive will bend over and take it. Idealist will suggest you “just buy another car” And of course, some will remark on the massive excess in public transport capacity, and suggest the tens of thousands of motorists join them on the spacious platforms.

PS, this change will have NO impact on the thousands of diesel commercial vehicles which spend hours caught in gridlock on London’s roads daily.

There is NO immediate solution. A 20 year plan at best, if politicians can commit and stick with ONE idea for that long.

Indeed. Well it’s a moot point as I plan to buy a large V8 and go and pollute Norfolk. The stupid thing is as much as I jest the cost implications of a charge on diesels will push people to petrol where the only charge is the road fund license. A new Mustang would cost me £515 in road fund. Just doesnt make sense to me.

Idling taxis are an issue. I am always surprised how many cars I see parked engines idling, driver on their phone or reading a paper, especially in winter. I have never had the guts to challenge anyone even though they are committing an offence.
I was listening to the radio recently when suddenly Nigel Havers came on and said that when he’s walking to work in central London and sees an idling car, he taps on the window and says, please turn your engine off, you are killing us. Often it was cabs, or chauffeurs waiting for owners. He said he mostly got abuse but occasionally people agreed. I was surprised as I hadn’t imagined him as the sort of person to do that but there you go.
Especially infuriating is cars idling outside schools for no good reason, so all the kids walking past (who are at a lower level so get the worst of it) get to breathe in their exhaust fumes.
Unless they are the getaway car in a bank robbery, I just don’t understand it. So what if they are cold? Well get out and walk around like the rest of us do. Sorry it’s a bit of a bugbear of mine…

Scotland Yard are investing in Hybrid vehicles to combat air pollution in London:

Hope they dont have any long chases

Edit: 125 mile real world range. Not bad.

London Fire have already started rolling out the i3’s

The Sun and The Telegraph both reporting that the Govt is working on a diesel car scrappage scheme

"Diesel car scrappage system could be introduced to cut emissions and improve air quality"

“Officials ‘drawing up plans’ for diesel scrappage scheme to cut emissions”

I’ll admit to some sympathy for the cabbies. The black cab is their workplace 8 hours a day and the doors are always opening and closing - surely they’re just trying to stay warm.

No, it doesn’t do the rest of us much good - and I see no excuse for parents keeping the engine running. I don’t. We only have to wait a few minutes for the sprogs to come out.

Another article about pollution- from Lambeth - map showing that in Lewisham in 2014 6.3% of deaths were attributed to pollution (no other details given).

Pretty much every single day when I walk to school I will pass an idling car.

I have been making a conscious effort to use my own car less recently in light of the air quality. But i don’t know if many people care too much about it.

Another couple of interesting maps:
How polluted is my road:

How polluted is my school:

A lot of schools in the area are near busy roads. However there are things that schools can do to limit pollution exposure e.g. Growing plants that absorb pollution.
There is a Clean Air for Schools Toolkit which had lots of ideas but it looks like it is dated 2013 so I am not sure the National
Curriculum links would be up to date.