Sadiq Khan wins 2024 London Mayoral election

[IvanV]

.... personal air quality meter on his trip into town (displayed pm2.5 in microgrammes per cubic metre).

TL/DR: roads around his home measured 3-5. Central London, 4-6. Journey there by Underground 60-200+.

V high particulate pollution in the Underground. There were some shock-horror articles a while back, and I did some research on it, not really coming to any firm conclusion. Origin is brakes, wheel on rail contact, electrical machinery, high density of people, etc. The actual nature of the particles in there is very specific, very different from other places. We don't really understand how bad it is for you, the nature of the pollution is probably more important than the number, given it is so different from the generality of surface pollution where we can say more is worse. On the fence article, Science Focus.
Probably very bad for you article, Cambridge Univ.

Another place where people fail to realise they are suffering very bad pollution is inside their car as they drive along. The car's fan sucks in exhaust fumes of their own vehicle and vehicles you follow. It's actually worse than riding a bicycle or walking along the same road.

[Woodchopper]

London mayor Sadiq Khan has shelved plans for a zero emissions zone in central London that would have levied a charge on drivers of all combustion-engined vehicles, marking a shift in his politically contentious crackdown on pollution.

The mayor’s office confirmed it had dropped the plan, adding it would focus on hitting the capital’s 2030 target for net zero emissions in other ways.

The development comes as Khan faces a backlash over his decision to push ahead with the expansion of London’s ultra low emission zone from Tuesday.

Khan told the BBC’s Today programme on Tuesday morning that his move to expand Ulez was a “difficult decision but a vital one”, adding that evidence of the harmful effects of air pollution on people’s health was “quite clear”.

The extension of Ulez means owners of older and more polluting vehicles will have to pay a daily charge of £12.50 to drive in Greater London.

Khan had previously pledged to go further and introduce a zero emissions zone in central London in his transport strategy, which was first published in 2018. It was updated last year to highlight “the triple challenges of toxic air pollution, the climate emergency and traffic congestion”.

In the plan, the mayor had pledged to work towards a new central London zone by 2025, which it said would “likely” require any non-zero emission vehicle to pay a daily charge. As well as Ulez, central London has a congestion charge zone that levies a £15 daily fee on drivers of all petrol or diesel-engined vehicles.

https://www.ft.com/content/d373d159-7a9 ... 542eac8527

[bjn]

It was Shapps that insisted the ULEZ expand in return for bailing out London transport during COVID. Khan (and I) may agree with the expansion, but a Tory minister's involvement is never mentioned in articles like that. Grrrr.

[Sciolus]

Give it a few years and most of the replacements available will meet the current criteria anyway, so allowing attrition to deal with existing vehicles but requiring new acquisitions to meet standards might be an effective compromise, but then attrition's going to deal with most of the older vehicles fairly soon anyway, and any cars newly coming onto the market will significantly exceed the minimum standards specified.

An excellent plan, with only two flaws. One, it condemns thousands more people to ill health and premature death. Two, it's illegal.

You're correct though. If the ULEZ works as it is intended and expected to, it's likely that by, say, 2027, the current legal limits will be met (a mere 17 years late!) and the ULEZ will be redundant for that purpose. Of course, the current legal limits are still dangerously high, and way above WHO guidelines. Maybe at some point there will be moves to improve the limits further? Though on current showings, it looks like 30,000-odd deaths a year is perfectly acceptable to most people.

It turns out that, to the disbelief and revulsion of morons, the ULEZ (and a whole bunch of other measures) actually brought London into compliance with the legal limits on air pollution in, er, 2024. Only 14 years later than it should have been. Meanwhile ULEZ-free Bristol, West Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester and Coventry/Bedworth (no, me neither) are still merrily poisoning their citizens with illegal air pollution.

Too bad EACL isn't around to express his dismay that all those tens of thousands of people aren't being killed and sickened any more.

Of course, we should remember again that the UK legal limits are four times higher than the WHO guidelines; and that the EU is halving its limits (to just double the WHO guidelines) from 2030, which the UK is not. So still plenty of unnecessary death and illness to go round!

[FlammableFlower]

Eh? Bristol has a Clean Air Zone (as has Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside (according to the gov.uk website)). Trying to look into those vs the London ULEZ is weird - whilst numerous websites say the ULEZ is more strict, as far as I can see the requirements for exemptions from the charge are the same (for Bristol anyway): Euro VI for buses, coaches and HGVs, for cars it's Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol, and Euro 3 for motorbikes. Admittedly it's a small zone for Bristol, so just covers the centre of the city.

[nekomatic]

Eh? Bristol has a Clean Air Zone (as has Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside (according to the gov.uk website)).

Also Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen .

[noggins]

I would posit that this position would likely cause non-mobility impaired people to attempt to buy modified vehicles, depriving those who need them or increasing the price significantly.

According to autotrader

"Smaller WAVs typically start around £10,000 to £15,000 for used models, "

So, no.

[Sciolus]

Clearly there are places where a LEZ (under whatever name) is not necessary to achieve compliance with the legal limits, and other places where a LEZ is not sufficient. As I said, London's ULEZ was accompanied by a bunch of other measures to reduce emissions from buses, taxis and construction plant, as well as promoting sustainable transport through its cycle schemes and affordable fares for its excellent public transport system. Bristol, by contrast, has a small (3.2 km²) LEZ, which seems to be helping, a scooter scheme, and sod all else apart from fine words; Birmingham likewise has a LEZ but very little other serious action. Manchester and Liverpool pointedly refused to implement even a LEZ, so it's no surprise they still have illegal and deadly air pollution.