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Cabbies and cyclists unite against air pollution

Heads of the London Cycling Campaign and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association agree on Clean Air Zone strategy for London

Taxi drivers and the London Cycling Campaign have joined forces in calling for action on illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution in the capital.

London’s air quality crisis has brought together Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), and Ashok Sinha, Chief Executive of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), in supporting a proposal for a Clean Air Zone in London, as their members are among those worst affected by toxic vehicle emissions on the streets.

A survey published last week shows 62% of Londoners support the proposal, led by Greenpeace, for the Clean Air Zone in the capital, while it also emerged the 37 most popular models of diesel cars are producing many times more health-damaging pollutants on the roads than claimed in laboratory tests.

Call for emergency London air pollution restrictions

Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the LTDA, said: “As cabbies, we are subjected to the worst of London’s poor air – driving around in illegal levels of pollution on a daily basis.

“Black cabs are committed to cleaning up London’s air and will be emissions free in new vehicles from 2018. We stand together with the London Cycling Campaign and Greenpeace in calling on the next Mayor to implement a Clear Air Zone to ensure that other vehicles operating in the capital clean up their act."

Health warning issued in South East for pollution spike

Greenpeace is calling for a Clean Air Zone, created by phasing out the most polluting vehicles from the city centre, encouraging electric rather than petrol and diesel vehicles, boosting car sharing, a network of clean zones around schools and hospitals, with motor vehicle bans when air pollution is high, and cleaner public transport, among other things. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone currently proposed for London, to come into force in 2020, only applies to Zone 1 Greenpeace, the LCC and LTDA say it needs to be expanded to protect more Londoners outside of Zone 1 .

Ashok Sinha of the London Cycling Campaign said: “A comprehensive Clean Air Zone for London would protect everyone’s health - especially that of the capital’s children – as well as help fund the new Mini-Holland and Cycle Superhighway schemes that our Sign for Cycling campaign is calling for. The London Cycling Campaign stands united with Greenpeace and London’s cabbies in calling for the next Mayor to adopt this win-win policy that would both save lives and make it safer and easier for Londoners to make many more of their journeys by cycle.

A Greenpeace poll of 1,000 London residents shows 51% of Londoners are extremely or very concerned about bad air quality, while 60% support the introduction of a wider Clean Air Zone.

The calls come amid a further scandal surrounding the automotive industry: a recent Department for Transport investigation into cars by manufacturers such as Ford, Renault and Vauxhall are an average of more than five times above EU limits on Nitrogen Oxide in real-world conditions.

Stop Killing Cyclists targets DfT in pollution protest

Responding to the DfT’s findings transport minister, Robert Goodwill (who is also the minister for cycling), said no rules had been broken as the vehicles passed laboratory tests without cheat devices.

“Unlike the Volkswagen situation, there have been no laws broken. This has been done within the rules”, he said.

“But certainly I am disappointed that the cars that we are driving on our roads are not as clean as we thought they might be. It’s up to manufacturers now to rise to the real-world tests and the tough standards we’re introducing”.

Last week Greenpeace staged a protest across the capital, in which they placed pollution masks on high-profile statues around London, including Nelson’s Column, and Oliver Cromwell inside the Houses of Parliament complex, to highlight the growing air quality crisis which sees around 10,000 Londoners die prematurely each year because of poor quality air.

On Wednesday (29 April) campaign organisation, Stop Killing Cyclists, is planning a mass protest outside the Department for Transport headquarters to highlight transport policies that the group says are failing to tackle lethal air pollution.

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10 comments

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Tim Sowter | 7 years ago
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An easy and instant starting point would be to instruct all taxi drivers to switch off their engines when they are parked up reading the paper etc. If every taxi driver, coach driver and delivery van driver were to do this there would be an instant improvement. 

Avatar
Guanajuato | 7 years ago
2 likes

All forcing them to have electric vehicles will acheive is move the pollution problem elsewhere (i.e. the power stations).  But of course, its outside London, so doesn't matter.  Let the plebs in the trent valley suffer.

Avatar
bikebot replied to Guanajuato | 7 years ago
4 likes

Guanajuato wrote:

All forcing them to have electric vehicles will acheive is move the pollution problem elsewhere (i.e. the power stations).  But of course, its outside London, so doesn't matter.  Let the plebs in the trent valley suffer.

Bored of seeing this stupid comment.

Electric vehicles are almost always charged overnight, when the grid is now frequently running with an excess of renewable plus nuclear.

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to bikebot | 7 years ago
1 like

bikebot wrote:

Guanajuato wrote:

All forcing them to have electric vehicles will acheive is move the pollution problem elsewhere (i.e. the power stations).  But of course, its outside London, so doesn't matter.  Let the plebs in the trent valley suffer.

Bored of seeing this stupid comment.

Electric vehicles are almost always charged overnight, when the grid is now frequently running with an excess of renewable plus nuclear.

Yes, the share of low carbon generation is rising rapidly - it'll soon be the majority. Coal is being phased out entirely.

There's also the issue of exactly where the pollution is produced, and what it exactly is. The emissions from the top of a tall cooling tower (even less a gas-fired station) don't have the same local effects as diesel particulates emitted near ground level in densely-populated city centres.

Avatar
bikebot replied to Dnnnnnn | 7 years ago
1 like

Duncann wrote:

There's also the issue of exactly where the pollution is produced, and what it exactly is. The emissions from the top of a tall cooling tower (even less a gas-fired station) don't have the same local effects as diesel particulates emitted near ground level in densely-populated city centres.

//i.imgur.com/FFKoFLk.jpg)

The polluting gases and particulates go through the tall chimneys, which have filtration to greatly reduce stuff such as sulphur and mercury.  The cooling towers create great big dramatic clouds, but it's just steam.

The picture is of Ferrybridge which closed last month. Those chimneys are 200m high!

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to Guanajuato | 7 years ago
0 likes
Guanajuato wrote:

All forcing them to have electric vehicles will acheive is move the pollution problem elsewhere (i.e. the power stations).  But of course, its outside London, so doesn't matter.  Let the plebs in the trent valley suffer.

Lots of 'plebs' in London. Who have spent decades breathing in this crap (in many cases for the benefit of non-Londoners driving in), so I don't see why they can't get a break.
Plus the distribution of the pollution, and the exact nature of it, makes a difference. The population density is a _mite_ higher in London than in the places where the power-stations are, you realise?

Going electric doesn't solve all the other problems though, like congestion and RTAs and physical inactivity.

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kie7077 | 7 years ago
1 like

Quote:

"Private hire cars licensed for the first time in 2018 must be hybrids or have Euro 6 standard engines, but not until 2020 must all new private hire cabs be capable of running solely on battery power."

Some weasly words there, not must be electric but must be capable! And for new cabs only. So realistically, another decade of black cabs spewing out clouds of filthy thick black soot.

Quote:

The hybrid has a battery which is recharged by the petrol engine

Charging an electic battery with a petrol engine! What a stupid idea, completely defeats the point of having an electric engine.

And, Euro 6 is one of the standards which is being bypassed with cheat devices, it's not a working standard. "On average NOx emissions from Euro 6 vehicles were more than six times higher than the 80mg/km test limit"

Seriously not impressed. Here's a better idea, have some battery swap stations dotted around London, charge batteries, quick swap them faster than you can fill a diesel tank. Replace diesel cabs with 100% electric cabs.

Ultra low emission zone: New black taxis must run on electric batteries from 2018, TfL confirms | Transport | News | London Evening Standard

Diesel cars' emissions far higher on road than in lab, tests show | Business | The Guardian

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HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
0 likes

SKC protest is 27th April, I think. 29th is a Friday.

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bikebot replied to HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
0 likes

HarrogateSpa wrote:

SKC protest is 27th April, I think. 29th is a Friday.

Correct, Wednesday 27th, from 5pm. DfT is on Horseferry Road. 

Avatar
londoncommute | 7 years ago
1 like

So:

 

1)  black cabs currently create a disproportionate amount of the polution in central London (33% of particulate pollution)

 

2) they're being forced to transition to cleaner vehicles by the mayor and

 

3) they want unregulated Uber vehicles off the road so if new rules applied to all cars they'd also be covered

 

Sounds like a genuine wish to help Londoners rather than self interest......

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