| Topic: | Public Meeting "Out of breath?" - Air quality in Wandsworth, the facts & what's being done about it | |
| Posted by: | Richard Hodges | |
| Date/Time: | 24/02/12 15:32:00 |
| Janis, If I may pick up on one small, but very important, error in your response. Where you say: "after all car use is a major contributor to air pollution", the reality is anything but that, for the Putney area. The data for Putney High street has shown one source way above all others. Busses (10% of the traffic) are producing two thirds of the NOx. NOx emissions are seen as the major issue in Putney. Now stop and think about what that means. If the busses produce 2/3, the other third is produced by: - The other heavy vehicles - coaches, lorries and trucks (about another 10% of the traffic) - The other light commercial vehicles - vans, taxis, ambulances (another 15%) - Private cars and motorcycles (the remaining 65%) and that's ignoring the other sources like planes, trains, and all those gas boilers in homes. Think about that. There are as many trucks and coaches on PHS as busses, but they are responsible for a small fraction of the pollution (in fact a reasonable guess would have been that they would produce half as much, which leave nothing produced by the cars, vans and taxis). If you eliminated the busses, PHS would drop into the bottom 10% of the measured sites in London. If you brought bus pollution standards down to parity with the other vehicle sources, it would still probably drop into the bottom half. That is a massive imbalance, and I would go as far as calling it a scandal (since the data has been covered up by certain parties). In fact, other data (the various creation and removal of the congestion zones) indicates that the cars and vans, being the more stringently controlled, actually reduce the noxious pollution. In a moderately polluted environment (like Putney, and much of London) the exhaust is cleaner than the air they take in. Removing cars in the congestion zone led to an increase in pollution. Removal of the Western extension did not cause an increase in NOx (despite an increase in the number of vehicles. The most important point here is that, for now, when looking at the production side of the pollution problem, the only game in town is the busses. That means: - Replacing the older units, operating to the older, less stringent emissions standards. - Upgrading existing stock - Ensuring all the vehicles are maintained to their standards (my word from the inside is that they aren't) - Reconsidering the way buses are used around the town (siting of the terminus, and siting/usage of bus stops) Anything else is pointless, and quite possibly counter-productive. In terms of point-of-production, only when this stand-out issue is demonstrably coming under control will it be worth addressing the other sources. Post-production, there are things that can be done. They are the same ones I was talking about a year ago. Two could be implemented by Sunday morning, and would have a noticeable effect, but some people seem to be rather blinkered in their views so I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for pragmatic actions (pun intended). |