Cleaning up London’s toxic air

Can I suggest a way to help make electric vehicles easier to own?

It is very difficult to own and run an electric car if you live in a terraced house where one typically has to park in the street, as running a charging cable across the pavement is not permitted. With the importance of reducing particulate emissions, nitrous oxides and CO2, has the Mayor considered having electric car charging points in these roads? If it is too expensive to install dedicated high capacity units, how about cheaper designs based on modifying lampposts?

Christopher Woolmer

From 2019 motorbikes that dont conform to Euro3 will be charged the emission charge going into the emission zone...
There is also mention of increasing the size of the congestion/emission Zone to the area within the North and South Circular Roads..

How can TFL or The Mayor decide what the new restrictions will be BEFORE he has decided on the area it will cover??

There is a 2 year exemption for people with motorbikes once the new rules start IF THEY LIVE INSIDE THE ZONE .... but if they are not inside the zone they need to start thinking NOW about changing their motorbikes for much more expensive later models that The Police are unable to stop from theft .... so Insurance Permiums are very much higher as is the cost of the bike....

How can TFL decide to tell us the rules and not tell us if they will apply to us, giving us the caveat that they may not apply some time in the future AFTER we have had to get rid of our motorbikes ???

I bought my first motorbike at 45 years old too avoid having to pay enormous charges to subsidise the increased congestion caused by the ring road.... since then pollution has increased due to traffic flow restrictions, cycle lanes, speed humps etc.. and forcing vans to use Diesel.. so now TFL want more subsidies paid by motorcyclists as if that wasnt enough already !

I spent 45 mins on the phone (mainly waiting) to City Hall and TFL today....Nobody can tell me if I have to get rid of my bike by 2019 as I live 150 meters outside the existing Zone... The phone call would have been longer but after holding for 15 minutes to speak to the THIRD person... I gave up...

Boris may have been a buffoon, but at least his plans were clear and we could act on them.... This, as usual, is a pointless, unproductive comedy of errors....

What about reducing the number of bus stops? You can pretty much see at least the next one if not two stops. This seems like a win in terms of public health as people might have to walk a bit. It should also help reduce congestion by decreasing the constant stopping. An example of excessive bus stops is Stamford Hill Broadway when busses stop either side of the junction, i.e. 40 foot apart.

In case there is anybody anywhere near power actually reading these comments I will put here what I put in response to the initial consultation.

I own a V-reg petrol-driven Toyota Yaris. No idea exactly how old that makes it but it is certainly old enough to be hit by the T-charge. Fortunately I don't drive through central London unless I absolutely have to and have always avoided the congestion charge zone wherever possible. I occasionally drive through the zone outside the hours of operation, largely when I have to get from east to west London with heavy or bulky baggage.

My little car has a tiny engine (998cc?) and I cannot believe that it is producing more pollutants than 4x4s, saloon cars, vans, or other commercial vehicles, whether of a similar age or more modern.

I am very concerned about the likely extension of the T-charge to the north and south circular as this will hit me in zone 2. I need my car because I drive to my partner's home in Surrey (miles from public transport) once a week and return four days later. I inherited my car from my mother and it is entirely possible (but not certain) that in 2-5 years time I may not need it. Therefore I don't want to spend money on replacing it at the moment and, in fact, I do not have the money to replace it with a more modern model.

What is a city?
Is it a place where people comes to? If so then why do we get penalties for coming in ... In the form of cc,
t-charge, ultra low emission charge, etc...etc!? I think the solution is not charging but better transport system. How about making bus journey free? Or public transport free? The mayor of London is stepping in the right direction by making connecting bus journey free (within an hour, why? Just don't allow free return journey will do, because the 1st leg journey might take up an hour before you connect to the 2nd leg journey). Central London tenants pays ludicrous amount business rates already. Where has that money gone? To pay for luxury office space to house government staff. Send them to somewhere where office space is cheap or next to nothing. Push the overhead cost out of central London.

Electric car is the future but how does electricity produced? Burning... turbine... electricity. So every which way you turn to we are creating pollution but the pollution is pushed elsewhere! Problem solved? It is in central London I suppose.

We need express bus!
The bus journey can takes hours but if we have designated 'express stop' - like a fast train stopping only at a few selected stops having the purpose of halving journey time is the way forward. This will encourage more people to hop on the bus. Who's want a two hours bus journey back home anyway? Introducing (different) express stop route with different time slot should make everyone happy. With more people using the bus then bus prices could be lowered further.

With electric cars becoming more common and the government's policy of stopping the sale of new petrol/diesel cars after 2040, pollution in London will start to fall.
If the Mayor wants to speed up the process then there has to be a huge roll out of electric charging points across London. I live in a terraced street where it is unlikely I will be able to park outside of my house, there is no point in me investing in an electric car, because I can't charge it. The answer to this is to start installing charge points across the city. This could easily be done, create jobs, and help to reduce pollution. It doesn't even have to cost the tax payer anything, simply have charge points that people can access with a smart card/account number/PIN, or other form of ID. The user is then billed for the electricity used, plus a small charge for installation and maintenance. Come on London, lets get this problem solved. If I can come up with an idea, a person of limited technical knowledge, I'm sure the trendy techies can do even better over a soya latte!!!

I've swapped my car for a greener one. That was largely because of the emissions from the old one. Not because of the charge, because I rarely drive in town, but because of the health impact. I'd like to cycle more instead of driving, but there is still no safe provision for cycling in my part of London.

I live in Enfield and my car is a Skoda Octavia which I bought in 2001. Usually, if I go into London I use public transport, but I do the odd journey to see friends that live outside the congestion and T zone but inside the North Circular. It would take at least three times as long to visit some of these friends using public transport and we are talking east-west and not a trip radially into the centre of London. The east-west trip is not so well served by trains.

We have seen that the actual pollution rates of vehicles under normal driving conditions do not match the stated manufacturer claims - why is this not updated? I believe the Mayor was going to publish actual emission rates on the website - some older cars produce less pollution than new cars.

Why are cars with larger engines, like SUVs, not more heavily penalised? Few people really need SUVs around London - they are more of an accessory item and the drivers should be hit harder with taxes.

Can we not invent a new catalyst that will help solve this problem?

An electric car is fine around London, but would need recharging on longer journeys - I sometimes visit my son and family in Cheltenham and could not do a return trip without recharging, as far as I can see and there would be a problem recharging an electric car anywhere close to where my son lives. The infrastructure for electric cars is not here yet in the UK in sufficient quantities. The train fare would be somewhat prohibitive. Electric cars are also quite expensive at the moment, but it is possible the price might come down if we are forced to buy them.