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"Edinburgh’s air ­pollution is caused by too much traffic"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    The good news is that Scotland’s biggest environmental health problem is almost entirely preventable if we are willing to change our transport habits.

    Let’s be clear: Edinburgh’s air ­pollution is caused by too much traffic.

    And let’s not blame the buses: Edinburgh City Council’s analysis shows that, for the majority of spots, it is cars which cause the most air pollution. Put simply, the way we are getting from A to B is seriously damaging our health. Improving transport in Edinburgh is a matter of life and death.

    Edinburgh City Council is beginning to take air quality more seriously, with the introduction of 20mph zones and cars soon to be banned from outside some schools. We welcome these steps but they will not be enough on their own to bring about the necessary improvements in air quality.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/emilia-hanna-ending-traffic-pollution-is-right-1-3660567

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/city-centre/call-for-caution-as-capital-s-air-pollution-falls-1-4336534

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    "

    A CONGESTION charge will come back on the agenda as a potential answer to pollution in the Capital, a leading environmentalist has said ahead of a new inquiry into air quality.

    Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said if road tolls on vehicles coming into Edinburgh had been approved in the 2005 referendum it would have helped give the city cleaner air.

    "

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=17894

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Perhaps motor access to the city centre should be rationed rather than sold?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @IWRATS, that's precisely the suggestion I made to CEC when it was planning its referendum of whether or not to introduce a congestion charge (or introduce trams as an alternative), back in about 2005* or something.

    It's not beyond the wit of Man or technology to maintain a database of vehicles entering and leaving the cordon at all times. I would like to see a congestion charge that ramped up in a non-linear way, so that occasional users (say, one day a week) were not overly penalised compared with regular users (2-3 days a week, or 4-7 days a week). In a sense, ANPR would provide for a 'the more often you use it, the more you pay, the more you pay the even more you pay**, and the bigger or more polluting your vehicle, the more you pay'.

    * I still have my Edinburgh street map on which I plotted the then planned cordon. It was remarkably precise in the way it snaked around to avoid enclosing the Scottish Parliament.
    ** You really have to crank up the cost of frequent motoring to make a difference in cities, short of outright bans.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Arellcat

    If it's to be charging then that would need to be the model. The charge profile would need to be the same as the income profile in our society, so massively weighted against the richest.

    Alternatively, consider the city centre to be a common good, built on the efforts of all and accessible to all equally. Give every citizen twelve non-tradeable tickets so that they can buy a new washing machine each month, otherwise get ye busse.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. cb
    Member

    "I still have my Edinburgh street map on which I plotted the then planned cordon"

    Where did it go in relation to Morningside/Bruntsfield? (I lived in Murrayfield at the time and seem to recall that Murrayfield Avenue was just outside the cordon (probably Russell Road too?)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. Frenchy
    Member

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4280377.stm

    Couple of maps here. Can't immediately figure out if Russell Road was inside or out; possibly intersected.

    Did the person who drew the map live on Yeaman Place? That's a curiously tortuous boundary in the south west of the cordon.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  9. Klaxon
    Member

    Just like it's absence from CPZ, it's interesting to see Leith Walk excluded from the CC zone proposal.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  10. gibbo
    Member

    Did the person who drew the map live on Yeaman Place? That's a curiously tortuous boundary in the south west of the cordon.

    Ha, ha.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/05/volvo-cars-electric-hybrid-2019

    Posted 8 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    Quentin Wilson on R4 just saying 'councils should encourage take-up of electric cars with things like free parking'...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  13. crowriver
    Member

    "Just like it's absence from CPZ, it's interesting to see Leith Walk excluded from the CC zone proposal."

    The inner zone is certainly a mysterious beast. As is the current CPZ.
    The latter certainly ought to reviewed, as the epidemic of daytime vehicle dumping in areas just outside the CPZ has reached new heights.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  14. PS
    Member

    My recent European city experience has further confirmed that a congestion charge can be avoided by simply removing parking spaces and closing most of the through routes in the city centre. You may have to put a lot of bollards up to protect your extra wide pavements from anti-social parking, but better some elegant bollards than a lot of bulky motor vehicles bespoiling the streetscape.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  15. cb
    Member

    I think the CC inner cordon 'shape' must have been partially driven by trying to minimize the number of entry points, hence the tracking of the Water of Leith and the Meadows.

    The sticky out arm at the bottom left was presumably because you have to have the entry point at the start of the Western Approach Road.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @PS

    Cracking post.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  17. jonty
    Member

    Yes. Could we start with a trial during the Fringe? Could be a accompanied with some allocation of bus/inside lane space to pedestrians too.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  18. LaidBack
    Member

    jonty Could we start with a trial during the Fringe?

    Yes. It's all meant to be so progressive and about people having street space.
    Environmental statement of having a traffic free Fringe would be good. There are only so many paper cups you can re-cycle and traffic is a health problem. Of course security concerns should mean that the festival will become more traffic free.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. neddie
    Member

    What PS said

    Much cheaper, much simpler.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  20. crowriver
    Member

    France to end sales of petrol, diesel vehicles by 2040: gov't

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/france-to-end-sales-of-petrol-diesel-vehicles-113010556.html

    Meanwhile back in Blighty, the press worries about a very slight fall in new vehicle registrations (from their highest ever level last year)...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40503950

    Posted 7 years ago #

  21. Snowy
    Member

    I like PS's suggestion the best. But if they are set on the idea of a charge, I think it would work better if it were a more granular solution, such as charging for miles driven within the city. The problem with cordons is that traffic is displaced onto the streets immediately outside the cordon.
    (disclosure: I live about 200 yards outside the cordon which was originally proposed!)

    Either way, it really needs to be done in conjunction with a root and branch review of the public transport serving the areas from which swathes of people currently drive.

    If we can provide decent public transport for the people who will never cycle, then at least the roads will be a lot more attractive for the people who *might* cycle!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  22. jonty
    Member

    I've sometimes wondered about a point-to-point charging system that is based on how easily the journey could have been achieved using public transport. So, driving from central Edinburgh to central Inverness might be quite expensive, but driving from Peebles to Cromarty could be a lot cheaper despite being a longer journey and largely using the same roads. I quite like it as it means drivers essentially fund people doing the "right" thing and also incentivises and de-risks the improvement of public transport links. It also somewhat neutralises the "but the public transport isn't good enough!" argument, as long as you're fair with the pricing . But it might be an easy system to cheap and probably creates weird incentives for people to live and work in inaccessible places. I'm sure it has lots of other downsides too. But it's an interesting to think about.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/03/outdoor-air-pollution-cuts-three-years-from-human-lifespan-study

    Posted 5 years ago #

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