London buses crawling in slow traffic caused by excessive PHVs, blamed for pollution increase
Another damning report, puts the blame for London's toxic air quality, squarely at the feet of TfL....and they do what they always do, try to lie their way out of it.
As Managing Director Leon Daniels is about as popular as rabies at present, TfL roll out their chief operating officer for surface transport, Garrett Emmerson who said: “We’re doing everything possible to mitigate congestion, including deploying a team of new on-street officers to clear obstructions and move unlawfully stopped vehicles.”
A team of new on-street officers to clear obstructions and move unlawfully stopped vehicles??? If this includes illegally park, illegally plying for hire Minicabs, then let's hope this new on-street team are more efficient than the limp waisted approach from the "on-street" operation neon team found aimlessly promenading round Mayfair some Friday and Saturday evenings.
After spending many millions on a state of the art control centre based in Palestra, TfL have managed to bring London to its knees, with much of the capitals roads virtually impassable. Traffic jams at 2-3-4 o clock in the morning caused by badly sited, sparsely used segregate cycle lanes, impossible traffic light phaising and badly planned traffic systems i.e. The Elephant and Castle, plus road works. London now has an excessive amount of polluting buses, with even more on order. Plus TfL's fleet of PHVs, the largest in the world, is expanding at a rate of 6-700 a week.
Professor David Begg, former chairman of the Government’s Commission for Integrated Transport, found some routes were now “close to walking speed” as they pushed more toxic fumes into the air.
One of the worst routes was named as the 11 from Fulham Town Hall to Liverpool Street station, which averaged just 4mph at peak times.
Professor Begg said the main cause of the extra pollution was that worsening gridlock had caused bus fuel efficiency to drop by more than a third since the millennium.
He said: “Stop-start conditions caused by congestion are a key factor (and) lower operating speeds are bad for pollution.
“Congestion dramatically increases carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.
“Under heavily congested conditions tailpipe emissions can be increased by a factor of three or four times.”
Professor Begg’s report, commissioned by the Greener Journeys campaign group, also blamed the explosion in on-demand Uber cars and delivery vans from online retailers such as Amazon for worsening congestion.
Professor Begg called for minicabs, including Uber and other car services, not to be exempted from £11.50 daily Congestion Charge.
Slower speeds also led to the capital “facing one of the fastest declines in bus use anywhere in the UK”, said Professor Begg, which he urged Mayor Sadiq Khan to prioritise.
Professor Begg report follow World Health Organisation findings that London is among the worst capitals in Europe for toxic air.
London’s concentration of PM2.5 microgrammes per cubic metre is about a third higher than New York and Copenhagen and on a par with Athens.
The WHO said that PM2.5 - which contains pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon - poses a grave risk to human health.
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