London Air Quality - Pollution

These posters look quite good. Obviously the usual arseholes will continue to drive around belching out shit in illegal vehicles, but as stuff becomes less socially acceptable it does make a difference. Tobacco smoke is a good example of this.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hardhitting-air-pollution-posters-to-go-on-display-on-londons-tube-network-a3661891.html

I really should've noted the registration of that Oxford Express bus that was spewing fumes out along Holland Puke Rd.

Snitches get stitches... in their sides from laughing at the massive fines imposed on polluting vehicles. #dreams

Why on the Tube though? Why not where the cars/trucks are being driven? Tube users are already doing their thing.

Get those fucking Big Tour Buses off the roads.
Have things like weighing stations for trucks that measure emissions and fine shitheads.
Increase congestion charging so that driving through London is actually unappealing.

So, this lot are currently doing the rounds:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/activist-spark-rush-hour-chaos-with-antipollution-demo-on-major-london-road-a3673176.html

I think it must be the same group (obviously with some different participants) I came across a few weeks ago when they did the same thing on Green Lanes next to Finsbury Park. I didn't stick around, as I think that sort of protest effectively only demonstrates for electric cars (even if that's not what they want), and I couldn't quite work out if it was an approved protest, as there were some police around who didn't intervene.

I travelled along the Marylebone Road last night, too, and when they did Tower Bridge I crossed that either before or after they did their thing, although I think it must have been beforehand, as I didn't notice any unusual congestion. I think they're following me around. /it'sallaboutme

I saw the Green Lanes one a few weeks back. It didn't look much of a protest to be honest, there were half a dozen people at most for a couple of minutes.

Not in London, but want to measure the pollution levels in our area. Has anyone bought or used a monitor? No idea where to start...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-marathon-figures-show-massive-89-per-cent-drop-in-air-pollution-a3821566.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/meet-the-london-taxi-driver-who-is-fighting-to-tackle-air-pollution-a3831711.html

Was really noticeable from the heath yesterday, from 1-4 it was high in the sky and thinner then dropped down around 6.

Noticeably cleaner air last night around Chiswick with people watching the football instead of driving around.

World Cup, every year, stat

Even such comparatively minor measures attract many objections:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/square-mile-s-1m-clean-air-street-delayed-amid-backlash-a4056886.html

Not in London, but I remember the same points being made by some Labour Party members ahead of Livingstone's introduction of the Congestion Charge:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/26/andy-burnham-manchester-cop-out-exempting-private-cars-from-clean-air-zone-charge

"poorer people who could not afford to upgrade their vehicles."

Um... guess it depends how you're defining poor.

It's a slippery slope.

It's AQAP time, folks.
That's Air Quality Action Plan.
The GLA has issued guidance to all London Boroughs,
but,
LB Hillingdon's 'was influenced by one of the council's overview scrutiny committee's to make it more local'. This is understandable as most of Heathrow is within LB Hillingdon.

https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/media/40950/Air-quality-action-plan-2019---2024/pdf/AQAP_for_Consultation_final_1.pdf

Time to make your own submissions and engage with your ward Councillors.

Slightly better news but still alarming, of course:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/01/air-pollution-falling-london-millions-still-exposed

It has probably been just a little bit more windy this year.

LB Hillingdon's AQAP consultation period closes 19th April.
Check your local Council's webpage for their closing date.

I don't know if anyone's been following the row in Stoke Newington over air quality levels at schools, particularly at William Patten School in Church Street. This was originally prompted by a Council proposal to modally filter the area south of there (although the current proposals are poor for various reasons) and has descended into quite a low-level debate over pollution data which I think rather misses the point. Here's the latest instalment:

https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/air-quality-report-can-t-convince-stoke-newington-parents-1-5986721

The parents' fear is that motor traffic levels along Church Street would increase if through motor traffic were removed from the to-be-filtered area, and hence air quality in the William Patten playground, which is directly adjacent to Church Street, would get much worse. This would almost certainly not be the case, as there would certainly be a reduction in overall motor traffic in the area without much of an increase on the streets along the cell boundary (among them Church Street). Plenty of other such schemes have shown considerable reductions, although in many cases the data is skewed because at the same time whopping great new ring roads or by-passes were built. At any rate, filtering this area will be a necessity should the Stoke Newington gyratory be returned to two-way.

In my experience, predictive scenarios ('modelling') for this sort of thing tend not to include all the factors and stand and fall by the initial assumptions that are made. This study may well be different, but modelling generally tends to reflect little change from the status quo, as it is (or the modellers are) inherently conservative.

Anyway, this will probably fester some more before it comes to any conclusion.

Bunch of middle class wingebags failing to see the bigger picture of improving CS1 and the immediate area. They should be glad they live in Hackney which might not be perfect but at least it's actually trying to do something about this kind of thing (and seriously, can anyone name a local authority who's doing it better?).

How else can you predict the effect of changes without modelling anyway? These parents have obviously had enough of experts. The projected 40.9 or 40.1 µg/m³ is a big improvement on the current 45 and as that report says only just above the 40 limit. Not great, no, but there are plenty of schools in London with NO2 levels way above that in the 50s and even into the high 60s.

The worst is St Mary’s Bryanston Square in Westminster with 67 µg/m³ and there's a distinct lack of middle class outrage for schools like Woolmore Primary School on the A102 Blackwall Tunnel approach road in Tower Hamlets with 62 µg/m³. Funny that.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/01/location-location-lung-disease-pollution-ads-target-property-market

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48139403

So they only call their scheme 'Open Streets' to emphasise that they're not 'closed' and the BBC goes ahead and repeats the nonsense that streets are 'traffic-free' and 'closed to traffic'. It's just so difficult to get people to think sometimes.

Got 4 idling engines turned off yesterday. I'm having more success now. Smile and wave through the window, they roll it down. "Hello mate!" (BIG smile, totally casual) "Could you do me a really small favour?" Most are quite amenable by this point. "What?" "Could you turn off your engine?"