Pollution in London

[Almondmilk]

Is it that bad?

Is there any news yet about banning Diesels from the centre?

No news for a month or so www.google.co.uk/amp/www.standard.co.uk/news/london/campaigners-call-on-mayor-sadiq-khan-to-ban-diesel-cars-from-london-amid-air-pollution-fears-a3417352.html%3Famp?client=safari

Black snot is definitely real. It didn't use to bed a few years ago, but lately it happens a lot.

Today is bad, people leaving their engines to warm up instead of scraping the windows. You can smell the fumes long after the car has gone.

There has to be a campaign agains that sort of thing. Just use the scraper,

Yes I think so. I've just moved out of London an already mine and my dds breathing is better. I had the whole black snot on the tube thing too.

My asthma improved hugely when we moved out of London.

Never had black snot either , and like the other poster , London born and bred

Is there any news yet about banning Diesels from the centre?

Whilst I'd be mad to object to cleaner air in London (for people unfortunate enough to have to live and work there and for my rare visits), I do wonder how it could really work - I mean all the construction lorries, most busses, cranes, most taxis, generators, cement mixers, some trains etc are all running on diesel. A ban would be radical but it would also destroy all construction and almost all travel - not a great idea as far as I can see.

The sad truth is that if you want to live in a big overcrowded city, you're going have some downsides.

I visited London and came back looking like a miner.

Terrible place.

wasonthelist there are options to banning all transportation modes. Green buses? Electrical cars and cabs? Would be a great start. No more drivers apart from ambulances, taxis and buses. Huge improvement.

No more drivers apart from ambulances, taxis and buses.

And delivery lorries, fire engines, tourist coaches, neverending police vehicles, residents' cars, blue badge holders, Royal Mail vans, refuse vehicles, street sweepers, couriers, workmen, tradesmen, takeaway delivery motorbikes, and still those bloody irritating rickshaws

You might get a 10% decrease, I suppose, once all the necessary exceptions are accounted for.

No not at all! I'd reckong there are still thousands of diesel cars polutting the air outside of the emergency services.
Lots of other cities have car-free days in the centres and allow folk to luxuriate in the cleaner air.
Car driving in a city centre is often a massively wankerish thing to do.

I know London is bad but I don't think it's that much worse than the rest of the UK:

www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/who-names-uk-cities-breaching-safe-air-pollution-levels

Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham are worse and Thurrock is the most polluted are is the UK.

'And delivery lorries,... takeaway delivery motorbikes' ALL GREEN POWERED or electrical or not admitted. Only workers and services could get cars and all the fatties would drive instead of walking wouldn't be allowed in the center.

The sad truth is that if you want to live in a big overcrowded city, you're going have some downsides.

No one expects the air in London to be as clean as in the Scottish Highlands, but there has to be some balance.

People living in big city have a basic right to be able to breathe. Overcrowding is getting worse by the hour in London, lots of us don't have a choice, the children living here don't have a choice, something has to be done.

There is an alert issued by the Mayor today, and he did campaign on a "Cleaner Air" ticker, but hasn't done a thing about it.

all the fatties would drive instead of walking wouldn't be allowed in the center.

Didn't you learn your lesson in the "poor white trash debacle"?

Why don't you get to the UK first and then run for Mayor?

There's a lot of monitoring of exactly how bad it is in south London (all down the A23), and trying to figure out alternatives. Ditto Oxford St. Thing is the Oxford Street traffic is already almost only buses and taxis, with delivery trucks going to the backs of stores. The more they remove from Oxford St, the worse it gets on surrounding streets.

Anyone with an alternative already uses it, because the traffic is so bad it takes forever to drive anywhere.

Aiming for all vehicles coming into the centre of London (say within z2) to be electric or non-particle-producing by 2020 would be good. Would need a huge array of charging points and some centres for electric vehicles to pick up cargo from outside, though.

I don't want to have any black or green snot , so I don't think I will want to come over. I have no reason to, either, except possibly for museums and shopping. I was there ages ago, and already back then you could feel the bad air immediately upon stepping out of the aircraft.

Try Bath or York instead language. Or Manchester if you like urban grit.

wasonthelist there are options to banning all transportation modes. Green buses? Electrical cars and cabs?

I agree it would be a good start but there aren't piles of such vehicles just waiting to be put into immediate use, nor does the power supply and charging infrastructure exist to support their use, so changes are going to be marginal.

And that is without considering the costs - how much more are you prepared in cab and bus fares to support the costs of scrapping serviceable diesel vehicles and replacing them? Because it's not a cost neutral option.

People clamouring for a "ban" need to be more precise about how they think it would work - unless they want to shut down the economic activities that make big cities exist.

As I said, I not arguing against cleaner air anywhere, but difficult choices need to be made not just shouting "ban it".

ALL GREEN POWERED or electrical What on earth do you mean by "green powered" in this context?

biogas

OK, what commercially available Busses, taxis, trucks,cars and motorbikes that run on biogas are you planing to use, and where is the fuel coming from?

How would you force residents to buy new vehicles? Look what happened with the mansion tax.

The visitors who like to screech around in diamanté encrusted sports cars wouldn't be too happy either. So, by that token, neither would the most expensive hotels, department stores or restaurants.

"diamanté encrusted sports cars "

Mine isn't diesel.