Clean air zones

[stefanovic]

Asthmatic myself I welcome ULEZ.
Rich will still be able to pollute.
Birmingham has clean air zone, but you would be crazy to drive into city centre unless you have to.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Yes, it’s always the motorists fault.
Modern cars are so much cleaner than they used to be, so horse and bolted comes to mind.

 

[pendodave]

Yes, it’s always the motorists fault.
Modern cars are so much cleaner than they used to be, so horse and bolted comes to mind.

Two things can be true...
Yes, they may be cleaner
Yes, they still ontribute significantly to poor air quality which impacts life expectancy and health.

 

[Neilds]

Maybe if they made it easier to drive through the cities, people wouldn't spend as much time just sat idling in their cars

PS - This is (partly) tongue in cheek

 

[cliveb]

At the risk of this being deemed a political comment...

It is absolutely clear that the ULEZ extension to the whole of Greater London is nothing to do with air quality.
Analysis of the effects of the existing ULEZ in London show that it has yielded virtually no improvement.
The London ULEZ expansion is a cash grab by TfL.
And the interesting thing is whether the cost of replacing all the vandalised ULEZ cameras will be greater than the income from the ULEZ payments.

 

[Slab]

Had to google ULEZ to see what it was

If over and above all the exemptions & discounts I see listed, the tflgov website says "Nearly all petrol vehicles produced since 2005 meet the ULEZ standards"... is anyone actually gonna need to pay the charge ?

 

[Neilds]

Had to google ULEZ to see what it was

If over and above all the exemptions & discounts I see listed, the tflgov website says "Nearly all petrol vehicles produced since 2005 meet the ULEZ standards"... is anyone actually gonna need to pay the charge ?

10% of vehicles are (apparently) non compliant- including mine. It is a 2014 Focus diesel, works perfectly and passes MoT every year. Thankfully I don’t need to drive into London but I now don’t go to Bristol shopping as they have a zone

 

[D-S]

At the risk of this being deemed a political comment...

It is absolutely clear that the ULEZ extension to the whole of Greater London is nothing to do with air quality.
Analysis of the effects of the existing ULEZ in London show that it has yielded virtually no improvement.
The London ULEZ expansion is a cash grab by TfL.
And the interesting thing is whether the cost of replacing all the vandalised ULEZ cameras will be greater than the income from the ULEZ payments.

They have worked in Bath

Bath air quality improves since introduction of clean air zone

Nitrogen dioxide levels are down 26% since the CAZ is introduced in Bath.

www.bbc.co.uk

They provide quarterly updates of all the monitoring and it certainly is moving in the right direction.

 

[Neilds]

They have worked in Bath

Bath air quality improves since introduction of clean air zone

Nitrogen dioxide levels are down 26% since the CAZ is introduced in Bath.

www.bbc.co.uk

They provide quarterly updates of all the monitoring and it certainly is moving in the right direction.

Bath have only charged lorries not cars

 

[D-S]

Bath have only charged lorries not cars

Will be interesting to see the Bristol results in due course.

 

[Neilds]

Will be interesting to see the Bristol results in due course.

I find it 'interesting' that the bus services in Bristol have been cut drastically since the LEZ was introduced. Also, if the council put a Park and Ride at the top of the M32 then that would reduce loads of traffic into the City centre, much more than any charging zone

 

[clubchamp98]

What I don’t get is.
You can still drive your polluting car in the zones but you have to pay the fee.
That’s not good for air quality but very good for the councils bank balance.

So how is that helping the air quality.
You can pollute the air if your rich enough.!
But this hits poorer people as they seem to be the ones who own older cars.

Just ban cars in City centres !
fine in London as the public transport is great.
But other Citys it’s not so good.

 

[IanM]

What I don’t get is.
You can still drive your polluting car in the zones but you have to pay the fee.
That’s not good for air quality but very good for the councils bank balance.

Bit like "paying" to offset the impact of a flight. It cannot.

 

[moogie]

Introduced ULEZ into Newcastle
It's nothing but a stealth tax, money maker

It only hits
Taxis
Buses
Lorries
Vans
NOT the General Public

So pretty pointless, except to generate revenue and pick on easy targets without upsetting too many of the public

 

[PJ87]

A point often missed that this "money grab" is used directly to improve public transport..the money is ring fenced for transport improvements in the areas required rather than being able to used for other things

Ulez in greater London goes directly to improving transport in greater London rather than the overall budget

 

[Neilds]

A point often missed that this "money grab" is used directly to improve public transport..the money is ring fenced for transport improvements in the areas required rather than being able to used for other things

Ulez in greater London goes directly to improving transport in greater London rather than the overall budget

Please see post #11

 

[cliveb]

A point often missed that this "money grab" is used directly to improve public transport..the money is ring fenced for transport improvements in the areas required rather than being able to used for other things

Ulez in greater London goes directly to improving transport in greater London rather than the overall budget

I've now moved to Devon, but when I lived in Watford (just 1 mile outside Greater London), my impression was that public transport around London was already pretty good.
Granted I didn't use buses (although there always seemed to be loads of them trundling around).
Whenever I used the tube or overground, it seemed pretty efficient to me. Yes, it was crowded at times, but that's down to numbers of travellers. The number of trains was pretty high.

So how is this ring fenced money going to improve an already good service? What exactly will it be spent on?

 

[Dando]

I've now moved to Devon, but when I lived in Watford (just 1 mile outside Greater London), my impression was that public transport around London was already pretty good.
Granted I didn't use buses (although there always seemed to be loads of them trundling around).
Whenever I used the tube or overground, it seemed pretty efficient to me. Yes, it was crowded at times, but that's down to numbers of travellers. The number of trains was pretty high.

So how is this ring fenced money going to improve an already good service? What exactly will it be spent on?

i guess the money will go to give pay rises to the TFL staff when they decide to strike again over "safety fears"

 

[PJ87]

I've now moved to Devon, but when I lived in Watford (just 1 mile outside Greater London), my impression was that public transport around London was already pretty good.
Granted I didn't use buses (although there always seemed to be loads of them trundling around).
Whenever I used the tube or overground, it seemed pretty efficient to me. Yes, it was crowded at times, but that's down to numbers of travellers. The number of trains was pretty high.

So how is this ring fenced money going to improve an already good service? What exactly will it be spent on?

New bus routes
Talks of new tram routes in my borough (Havering)

Those are just 2 off top of my head

So many behind the scene upgrades happen every year it's easy to miss but those are general upgrades

 

[IanM]

We have 4 buses a day from our village into Chepstow! Why would anyone need a car?