CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Yeah, it's not as if there's a massive industrial vested interest in putting the best possible gloss on things. Neither is there a huge cultural bias in favour of motoring regardless of cost, whether economic, social or environmental.
Thank goodness for common sense, eh?
Paris has found a simple solution to air pollution:
Somehow, I can't imagine CEC having the stones to even consider this... these are the people who won't even close the park on Sunday (just bits of it).
Somehow, I can't imagine CEC having the stones to even consider this... these are the people who won't even close the park on Sunday (just bits of it).
That would be Historic Scotland (assuming you mean Holyrood).
CEC could be shutting Melville Drive through the Meadows though (buses and emergency vehicles excepted)
"CEC could be shutting Melville Drive through the Meadows though (buses and emergency vehicles excepted)"
Actually there are no through bus routes so shut section between Marchmont Road and Argyle Place would be a start.
CEC could be shutting Melville Drive
Does that mean that CEC are considering it (he asks hopefully)?
Or, just that you/we think CEC should close it?
Sorry, it was hypothetical optimism on my point. Edinburgh doesn't really do shutting roads, unless there's a sporting event on.
If there's a bit of cycle lane you'd like to have shut, they're open to deliberations; perhaps you'd like to build a pop-up whisky bar on it?
Well, this is one issue motorists can't fling back in cyclists' faces.
@paulmilne: wanna bet? Cyclists are holding up traffic by weaving around in the [b]middle of the road[i], getting in the way, jumping red lights, and so on. Thus causing hard working family motorists to rev their engines, stop and start, thereby reducing engine efficiency en masse and causing more pollution. Obviously!
How to solve the pollution crisis? Walking? Bicycles? Public transport?
Come on, this is Britain, where the car is king:
"Could the Volkswagen scandal power an electric car breakthrough?"
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/30/volkswagen-scandal-electric-car-diesel
Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick, but if these VW etc cars were rigged to cheat tests, does that mean that they're too polluting to be on UK roads?
In which case, why hasn't the government made a statement along those lines - i.e. that anyone owning such a car is not allowed to drive it until it's been "fixed"?
Silly question, obviously...
"In which case, why hasn't the government made a statement along those lines - i.e. that anyone owning such a car is not allowed to drive it until it's been "fixed"?"
Quite a number of reasons, not least among them that the people who bought the cars have done nothing wrong, and unless the government requires VW (Audi etc) to recall every car to make it right, providing every owner (even those who bought secondhand) with a courtesy car in the meantime, I don't think this is something that could be landed on the common man to have to deal with (it would be like, I dunno, not doing anything about bankers and recouping lost monies from the lower levels of society for instance).
Also, these cars would have failed up to date, modern tests, There are plenty cars out there on the roads that are more polluting, because they arrived on the scene well before these modern test-beating ones. Say someone owns a modern Golf, and an 80s Golf GTI, and they have to stop using the modern Golf, so they switch to the GTI, suddenly they're polluting more, the fuel economy is worse so they're using more fuel, etc etc.
So it's not that they're 'too polluting' to be on the roads, but rather that they should have been too polluting to be sold in the first place, and retrospectively clawing that back is somewhat difficult. Like I say, if you were to require VW to replace every failed car I suspect VW UK, and possible VW Global, would go under. Leaving all owners of the cars with a car they can't use, can't sell, and can't get replaced. At which point the government would likely be chivvied into helping out, giving a motoring bail out.
Or. They could leave those cars as they are, levy a fine that won't break VW but will certainly make a dent and hopefully see a change in attitude and approach (again, pretty much what didn't happen with the banks).
Much as I'd rather see fewer cars on the road, I don't think it's right that innocent Joe Public should be held accountable at the end of the day (and the rest of us who didn't even buy a VW, or subsidiary brand, who have to help in the bail out with our taxes).
A fine based on the calculated cost of the pollution above what was claimed to be the correct figure would be interesting (and bring it home just how damaging pollution is to health and well being).
Oh, and you can bet that VW aren't the only main manufacturer doing this, and there will be a huge number of furrowed brows and sweaty palms at a lot of other marques.
So VW are apparently going to start contacting users, but not clear if they are going to do an actual recall?
If they are then what would they actually do to the car?
Change the software so that the car doesn't 'cheat' during an emissions test? But what would be the point of that as once a car is purchased it doesn't go through an emissions test (apart from a rudimentary test as part of the MOT which presumably all VWs will pass anyway)?
Or are they just going to write to customers and say, "here are the actual emissions ratings for your car - now suck it up"?
I wonder what the fix VW are planning to implement on recalled cars is. I can't imagine it would be a software patch which ensures the cars can't be driven in a fashion which pollutes, but can't think of any other way they could "ensure vehicles fitted with a defeat device meet emissions standards".
There was talk of fitting ammonia injectors which reduce the nox or detuning the engine so it would meet the restrictions. Neither are going to be popular for the consumer.
Quite a number of reasons, not least among them that the people who bought the cars have done nothing wrong
And what have the people who didn't buy those cars done wrong?
Pollution isn't some harmless violation of box ticking admin rules.
Isn't VED now (or was until very recently) calculated based on the stated carbon emissions of a car? Has VW's wheeze been cheating the taxman out of millions in VED revenue? And from what I've read, it's quite probable that they're all at it to one extend or another and it's just VW have been stupid / unfortunate enough to get caught red handed.
"Has VW's wheeze been cheating the taxman out of millions in VED revenue?"
Probably, but I don't expect HMG will ask VW to cough up.
Nor to reallocate the cars to the correct bracket for future payments.
I'm sure I'll be proven wrong in due course but VW may have been taking things a step further. Most manufacturers design their cars to be economical on the test not the road and ensure non vital functions such as interior fans and lighting are off for the tests. VW meanwhile programmed the engine to ensure it wouldn't put out more than the test allowed and to cut the power if necessary to achieve that.
Nice article in the guardian about air pollution monitors which you can carry around in your pocket. Fifty quid seems a bit steep, not sure how much you are paying for the battery free element, which is possibly a gimmick. Still, would be great to have a proper pollution map of Edinburgh.
Here's one from 2013. Click to see full image. Red and dark orange means high, possibly illegal levels of airborne pollutants. Blue means low levels.
More info:
http://scot.okfn.org/2015/06/11/getting-the-measure-of-scotlands-air-pollution-problem/
Thanks!
I'm surprised to see that West Port / Lady Lawson Street are worse than many bits of Nicolson Street. Also that Easter Road looks so blue. It's all yellow around my house, which I guess is what I expected...
I think it's just the lower (northern) reaches of Easter Road that have lower pollution. Which makes sense, as the backed up traffic queues mainly occur at signalled junctions at London Road/Albion Road. I'm not at all surprised the West Port is polluted: presumably prevailing breeze dumps Tollcross pollution there? Also the "canyon effect" of high sided tenements with relatively narrow streets, downward slope creating "pools" of polluted air, etc.
I note also that this map only covers central Edinburgh. Pollution hotspots such as Salamander Street in Leith or (presumably) the A8 corridor in Corstorphine/Maybury are not visible. The data is probably there, via the council monitoring equipment. Just no-one has yet mapped the wider city area. There are surrounding areas not in Edinburgh proper (e.g.. Musselburgh High Street) that would probably show high pollution levels too.
Edinburgh may have really bad 'hotspots' but check out Glasgow: the whole city centre is one big pollution hotspot: appalling! Yeah those motorways into the centre of the city were such a great idea (not).
"those motorways into the centre of the city"
Construction began 50 years ago:
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Toni Giugliano, SNP candidate for Edinburgh Western at next year’s Holyrood elections, said the supermarket would push up congestion and pollution levels, infringing EU laws even further.
He said: “The city council has spent years trying to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels on St John’s Road – with mixed success. Green-lighting a major supermarket development in the heart of Scotland’s most polluted street would reverse any progress that has been made.
“Frankly it would be a spectacular U-turn for the council and its air quality commitments.”
Air pollution has been linked to asthma attacks, strokes, heart attacks, cancers and children’s lungs not growing to their full potential.
Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner Emilia Hanna said: “St John’s Road is a road where people live very close to the traffic, so they are being exposed to these levels.
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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/call-to-reject-supermarket-over-pollution-fears-1-3916316
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@CommonsEAC: VW boss says yes, car firms have ethical responsibility to reduce 50,000 UK deaths from air pollution #dieselgate http://t.co/lifticpol9
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