London Air Quality - Pollution

Looks pretty bad out there today, although BBC has pollution as 'L'.

Yes, pretty bad, looked like a forest fire.

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Have you spoken to the club? They've normally got plenty of stewards roaming around and that kind of thing they may view as an easy PR win.

Arsenal appear to be one of the better clubs https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55790760

I also live in Islington. I am copying your message to my local Councillors and suggest that you do the same.

You can taste the pollution today.

I took this up with my local councillors who in turn took it up with the council. They received this response

“Thank you for your enquiry.

As the person on the cycling forum states the council has a reporting
service for antisocial behaviour such as engine idling, it can be accessed here: http://www.islington.gov.uk/reportASB
Anti-social behaviour | Islington Council
Anti-social behaviour issues)
http://www.islington.gov.uk
or by ringing 020 7527 7272. We encourage the public to use this service at the time an incident is occurring so that it can be dealt with right away.

On all match days compliance officers are present and deal with a wide range of issues including vehicle idling.

If a report is made then it can be followed up by officers who are present in the area at the time. Equally, if relevant details of any vehicle are passed on then it can be followed up at a later date if officers are unable to witness the idling vehicle but it is much harder to take action.

If a vehicle is witnessed as idling, then in line with current legislation, the driver will be asked to turn their engine off and if they do not either turn the engine off or drive away a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) of £20 is served. Officers are looking in to options to change this to make it easier to fine drivers who idle, issue PCNs (Penalty Charge Notices) and widen the numbers of officers who can tackle idling vehicles.

There are also some legal exemptions to the idling rules. Most pertinent to this location would be leaving an engine running to power equipment, this would be things such as a wheel chair lift or something required for trading, for example ice cream vans often need to run to power their equipment.

If there is anything else I can help you with please let me know.

Kind regards,

Andrew

Andrew Ford
Environmental Pollution Manager“

After being away from the capital for over five years – aside from a fleeting (but joyful) mid-summer visit - although observing initially several electric vehicles (with noticeable plastic-but-futuristic-looking fronts) on main roads, the thought has occurred to me that London could do with being more Electric (like also Athens and probably much of India), but especially London, as its so much urban-corridors-as-thoroughfares, and still to a (surely unhealthily) large extent, The Big Smoke.

In other shocking news, ursines are now sensationally rumoured to defecate in areas with dense tree cover. You heard it here first.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/21/years-breathing-traffic-pollution-increases-death-rates-study-pollutionwatch

My sister in law Louise is working on solutions to eliminate exposure to air pollution. She’d love to speak to some cyclists as part of user research. Please can you message her if you’re interested to chat on 07966 225049. Unfortunately this is not a paid opportunity but will be met with much gratitude!

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Vehicles that are in daily urban usage being electric or lng is a massive improvement. For random low usage domestic cars it's a bit of a waste of resources tbh. Private hire cars/taxi/uber should all be electric for example. In their duty cycle is also lower operational costs as they need far less servicing and the servicing they do need is much easier to predict over a 3 year period vs an ICE car, especially modern diesels that are just really not a reliable thing anymore.

My friends at Air Aware Labs have just launched their first product to help people reduce their exposure to air pollution!

People exercising outdoors can now use Strava to get real time information on exposure to air pollution:

https://www.airawarelabs.com/strava

They are keen for as much engagement and feedback as possible!

I've signed up but not sure what to do with the data on my commute other than be mildly alarmed

Will contact them directly, realise they probably want the exposure but would prefer this stuff was stored in private notes (if at all possible).

I've signed up but not sure what to do with the data on my commute other than be mildly alarmed

Same, so stuck it in OpenAI.. will probably disconnect it now.

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Ask it what UK's guidelines are and how they compare with other countries?