Joint UK government procurement seeks supplier to support controversial Clean Air Zone system The UK government is on the hunt for a supplier to support and maintain the software behind its controversial Clean Air Zone (CAZ) policy in a tender that could result in a £22m contract. In February 2016, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Transport formed a Joint Air Quality Unit ( …
it's nothing to do with reducing emissions, but simply grabbing money from those who do not subscribe to the motor industries policy of wanting everyone to upgrade their car at great expense every 3 or 4 years. Cars can easily last 20 years - 300,000 miles these days, and a car that runs and runs is MUCH more environmentally friendly than breaking it up and building a new one to replace it every few years. Emissions have fallen by leaps and bounds over the 30ish years since the introduction of catalytic converters, particulate filters, fuel injection systems, etc., any further improvement is miniscule and at great expense.
Some of us are old enough to remember city centres of the 70's and 80's (many of us even before then) when every corporation bus was belching plumes of black soot out of the exhaust, not to mention the soot coming off coal fires in every domestic chimney...... We have come a long way, and evolution will take us a bit further, it doesn't need councils to go assaulting their citizens wallets for having the cheek to want to go to work to change things further.
Interestingly, in Norwich "terrible, polluting cars" were banned and a public transport only access only area was established to reduce pollution, which exceeded EU limits and the area monitoring recorded the highest figures in the city. Having been in place for a few years, "they" are looking for a solution to the problem of the area continuing to exceed EU pollution limits and still recording the highest figures in the city ... doh! Car drivers are obviously quite happy to sit in queues elsewhere as a result of yet another Norwich traffic "idea" yet even those areas still don't generate pollution figures as high as the 'only public transport only' areas. Obviously, quite obviously, there is a patently obvious problem about pollution to be addressed which isn't being done.
The notion that carrying everyone on public transport will be cleaner for the environment depends on the transport, electric trams or a Metro system would probably improve a city centre but just changing over from the usual range of private vehicles (some of which may be very modern and low impact) to diesel buses just demonstrates an inability to think things through on behalf of the authorities.
Bus companies typically cut as many corners as they legally can in operating a service, they are there to make a profit and maximising profit is normal so anyone thinking that buses would be less polluting when the numbers are increased to serve a population that has been denied their personal transport is not thinking. More large diesel vehicles stopping and starting every few yards will never be cleaner.
"diesel buses"
Here in The Hague, NL they changed over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses a few years ago to reduce emissions. I've noticed they're also rather quieter, can no longer hear them coming around the corner like I used to in the past. And there are some electric buses. All seem to be working rather well. (And a tram system, but that's only appropriate for larger cities.)
When these zones are introduced, those with non-conforming vehicles (and probably anyone who is unsure about it as well) will simply drive around it.
This pushes up the concentration of NO2 in the surrounding areas which may have been quite nice until that happens.
It is quite simply completely foreseeable.
When I lived in Thanet, the local outpost of Canterbury Christchurch University decided they would charge everyone (staff and students) to park within their car park with the completely foreseeable result that they all then simply parked on local residential streets that were already jam packed; this simply pushed the problem elsewhere.
Same principal.
The jolly road tax dodgers around here (and there are a lot) know where all the cameras are and simply avoid them. As the Plod [1]are extinct in this part of the world, they are safe apart from the off mobile camera van.
Out local Plod can't even stop Nox parties during lockdown when they have been told in advance about them. Many of those at the parties are driving untaxed and consequently uninsured cars.
This is all less than 40 miles from the seat of Gubbermint.
1] This is despite us supposedly having 30 more officers in the local area.
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