...to ask you to read this brief report if you ever drive in London?

[ArcheryAnnie]

"Air pollution in London so bad, it cancels out benefits of exercise."

So, if you go for a walk in a very busy main street, it can be just as bad as not going for a walk at all, in terms of contributing to the risk of heart disease or a stroke.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/air-pollution-in-london-so-bad-it-cancels-out-benefits-of-exercise_uk_5a2701dee4b0ee6f9637f6de?1au&ncid=newsletter-ukThe%20Waugh%20Zone%20061217

Most people who are going for a walk for fitness purposes won't walk up and down main streets, they normally go to parks etc of which there are many in London.

The stress levels alone of going for a walk along Oxford Street would probably be detrimental to your heart too.

How many joggers (aged over 60, another fact thats glossed over in the headline) do you see on Oxford street FFS

It's hardly surprising, given the way the drivers are so squeezed between cycle lanes and roadworks. I had a heavy bag this morning (and I'm 6 months pg), so got a cab - 7am, and a journey that should have taken about 25 mins took 90, because there were so many roadworks that when the one route that was left open got clogged by an accident, it was chaos. Then the 10 min journey from the breakfast meeting to work took 25. All those cars sitting stationary, pumping out fumes - what do they expect?!

It's one of the reasons we are leaving London after over 20 years.

Don't go for a walk, get a cab instead

But it's not just Oxford Street, is it? I live on a big road in London which is one of the many, many streets which come up on survey maps as subject to very high pollution. People don't just use it to jog (they will go into a park, or on the back streets) but to get from A to B.

Same road, come evening rush hour, is gridlocked, full of cars with only one person in them. (And yes, some will totally NEED to use cars for whatever reason, but not all of them.) My DS comes home from school on the bus on the same route, and recently it's been quicker for him to walk, the traffic is so bad. (It's not a short walk, and he's carrying a stupidly heavy school bag after a long school day, and with homework in front of him.)