EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

[Harold Gough]

Latest news:

http://news.sky.com/story/1474312/diesel-faces-crackdown-as-uk-ordered-to-act

Harold

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Up goes the TAX on diesel to pay the EU Fine...

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Very interesting. As the driver of a diesel powered car I suppose I should be concerned, but the image of black smoke belching out of the exhaust is something that I fail to understand. My car has now covered over 80,000 miles, and yet the insides of the exhausts are still bright and shiny, and I have never seen as much as a puff of smoke since I bought it.

(I do accept that soot and nitrogen dioxide are not quite the same thing though, which perhaps the journalist concerned should have pointed out.)

I agree there is a major problem with air pollution in our cities, and in London in particular. I also agree that something needs to be done about it. However, I have heard that air quality in London is greatly improved whenever there is a strike by London bus drivers, so perhaps persecuting the drivers of diesel cars is not the answer!

(I can quite believe this, as the air in the 'bus only zone' in our local town centre is vile.)

I would also argue that introducing electric vehicles would be a retrograde step. Electric vehicles are not the 'pollution free' panacea we are led to believe; they simply create even more pollution 'somewhere else'.

[snaarman]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

This is ironic after all the "switch to diesel" rhetoric this past decade.

Perhaps my 3 litre petrol car doesn't seem quite so evil after all. I still have to pay out £490 per year in Road Fund Tax for which I get an inexhaustable supply of potholes but alas no actual tax disk.

Grrr.


Pete

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Empty "Bus" lanes while there are queues of cars sat stationary.

24hr Bus Lanes (05:30 - 00:30 service)

Cycle lanes that reduce a two lane road to one lane.

Traffic lights on roundabouts.

Pedestrian controlled lights, set for 90 year old people.

Traffic lights that go red at 3am

Turn on RED at traffic lights.

40MPH limits on roads that were once 60MPH

50MPH average speed limits (24hrs/day)

Trucks that take 5 to 10 miles to overtake on motorways

There are so many ways that emissions can be cut, but "THEY" simply will not do anything that even resembles broader thinking.

[Otto]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Modern diesel cars have filters that trap the particulates so they no longer belch out black smoke. I would't have a diesel for years because I hated the filth that came out of the exhaust so felt it was unreasonable to inflict it on others; however, now they're much cleaner I bought my first one last year and mine also has exhausts that are still as clean and shiny as the day it left the factory. Tax the nasty smelly old smoky ones maybe, but the latest are much cleaner and new regulations coming in shortly will make them cleaner still.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

This is ironic after all the "switch to diesel" rhetoric this past decade.

Perhaps my 3 litre petrol car doesn't seem quite so evil after all. I still have to pay out £490 per year in Road Fund Tax for which I get an inexhaustable supply of potholes but alas no actual tax disk.

Grrr.


Pete

I think I am paying £280 in road tax for mine (based on "emissions"), and yet it uses less fuel than my wife's Astra, which costs £160 year! How does that work?

I am just glad I didn't opt for the V8 4.2 litre supercharged version! I hate to think how much that would cost, and yet users report getting 35 MPG on a run, which isn't bad for any petrol car.

Does anyone factor in the service life of cars though, and where they come from? Surely a British built car with a 3 litre engine that lasts for twenty years has a lesser effect on the environment than a Taiwanese built vehicle that falls apart after 50,000 miles and has been shipped half way around the world?

[Jim Ford]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Empty "Bus" lanes while there are queues of cars sat stationary.

Or lights controlled bus lanes on green and the 'normal' lane on red, at 6 AM Christmas morning - which I've experienced!

Traffic lights on roundabouts.

A roundabout near us had the traffic lights out for some weeks. Everybody, including the Mayor and MP said that there was a very big improvement to traffic flow with them out. Even the Highways dept. admitted that the gridlocks had been eliminated. Both the Mayor and MP started online petitions to remove the lights permanently.

But guess what. Yes, you've guessed - the lights and consequent gridlocks are back again! Local people are incensed!

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/12919037._Disaster_of_the_Dome____motorists_and_politicians_blast_traffic_light__chaos_/

Jim

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

TURN ON RED and "Out of Hours" Flashing lights at intersections, was introduced in the US during a Fuel Crisis.

If the Americans can understand it, surely the British can...

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

It would help a great deal if bus drivers would shut down their engines when they are not needed. Long-distance trains I can understand as there is air conditioning and pneumatic doors to power, but service buses?

Bus engines seem to be left running for hours, but I can never work out why. It certainly doesn't do the engines any good.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Empty "Bus" lanes while there are queues of cars sat stationary.

24hr Bus Lanes (05:30 - 00:30 service)

Cycle lanes that reduce a two lane road to one lane.

Traffic lights on roundabouts.

Pedestrian controlled lights, set for 90 year old people.

Traffic lights that go red at 3am

Turn on RED at traffic lights.

40MPH limits on roads that were once 60MPH

50MPH average speed limits (24hrs/day)

Trucks that take 5 to 10 miles to overtake on motorways

There are so many ways that emissions can be cut, but "THEY" simply will not do anything that even resembles broader thinking.

I cannot help but think that some of these measures are politically motivated. If you look at the colour of the local council it often gives some clues.

Newcastle City Council, for example, has 'no car lanes'. So if you are a surgeon driving to work to perform life saving operations you have to sit in a queue, but plumbers and cowboy builders driving vans can overtake you; presumably because their work is more important.

[Zuiko]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

I cannot help but think that some of these measures are politically motivated. If you look at the colour of the local council it often gives some clues.

Newcastle City Council, for example, has 'no car lanes'. So if you are a surgeon driving to work to perform life saving operations you have to sit in a queue, but plumbers and cowboy builders driving vans can overtake you; presumably because their work is more important.

Sometimes I think the World has just gone crazy.

[DerekW]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

Turn on red - "Left on Red" in the UK and "Right on Red" in the US

There is a big difference between the two countries re road layout, a large number of the busy urban roads in the US where "Right on Red" can be safely practised have more than one lane in each direction often three so there is room to turn right without interrupting the flow from the left.

In the UK the minority of urban roads are not multiple lanes in each direction.

However a good methodology that could be introduced in the UK is the 4 way stop, it takes up less space than a round-a-bout (traffic circle) and encourages each driver to acknowledge all the cars travelling on the road at the junction.

[Wee man]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

More pollution is caused to manufacture a vehicle than it will cause using fuel in its lifetime. Tax the steel mills, car parts suppliers and assembling plants????

[Olybirder]

Re: EU Clamps Down on Air Pollution

At least my change from diesel to my puny little petrol engined car doesn't seem such a bad move now. I have just been looking at the comments below the article. I didn't realise that you had to drive a diesel car to be a UKIP voter.

Ron