'Older cars damaging attempt to reduce air pollution level in city'
RECESSION and older cars on the roads are helping to prevent air pollution levels in Nottingham from falling enough to meet legal standards, it is claimed.
Although the EU has given the city until January 2015 to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels to legal limits, officials fear that the targets may not be reached in time. The city could be fined if that is the case.
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Fumes: The proposed widening of the A453 into a dual carriageway could end up bringing more traffic onto the ring road in Nottingham.
Canning Circus, Upper Parliament Street, Shakespeare Street and Queen's Road have been highlighted as the city's most polluted roads.
Richard Taylor, noise and pollution control team leader at Nottingham City Council, said air pollution levels across the country were not falling as fast as expected because the Government had overestimated the take-up of cleaner vehicles such as electric cars.
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Recession was also having an impact because it meant fewer motorists could afford to buy newer vehicles with less polluting engines.
"A lot of people are not able to change their vehicles as regularly as they were doing in the past," said Mr Taylor. "People are not buying electric vehicles as expected and more people are driving vehicles with diesel engines, which emit more NO2 than petrol engines."
It is expected another problem will be the widening of the A453, because it should bring more traffic into the city via the ring road – which goes past the A6005 Beeston Road in Dunkirk, an area that is in one of the city's two Air Quality Management Areas due to its high NO2 levels.
Additional traffic fumes in an area suffering high pollution could make it difficult for officials to work out whether the new NET tram line will improve air quality, as the council claims it will do.
"People will be driving their diesel vehicles from the A453 on to the A52 ring road, which goes through Dunkirk and up to the A60," said Mr Taylor. "Any increase in traffic may confuse monitoring results."
Nigel Lee, of Nottingham Friends of the Earth, said: "Traffic in Nottingham seems to be getting worse, not better. The pollution comes from buses and lorries as well as cars, though a lot of the problem is made worse by congestion. We need more people cycling to work. That is where investment needs to go, not into roads like the A453, designed to bring more traffic into the city, causing more congestion and more pollution."
NO2 is a major traffic fume pollutant that causes respiration problems and can worsen bronchitis in children who suffer from asthma. A study published by the journal Environmental Science and Technology earlier this year suggested more people in the UK died as a result of traffic fumes than were killed in road accidents.
In 2010 Nottingham was one of eight urban areas in England to be granted a time extension to bring NO2 levels under control. It gives the city until January 2015 to bring NO2 down to the EU's maximum permitted level of 40 micrograms of NO2 per cubic metre (m3) of air.
The latest figures show that 13 monitored sites exceeded that level last year. The most polluted areas were Canning Terrace and Upper Parliament Street, which both had mean annual readings of 51 mg/m3. The next highest levels, of 47 mg/m3, were Shakespeare Street and Queen's Road.
Nottingham's latest NO2 figures, for 2012, will be published in February 2013 but are not expected to show any significant changes. The fine levied against the city if it still breaches pollution limits by 2015 is unknown. Nottingham is not alone in facing air pollution and it would be the UK as a whole which would be hit by a penalty from the EU.
A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the Government would decide how much cities breaching limits should pay towards the fine.
Do you think older cars are the problem? Call newsdesk on 0115 9482000 or e-mail newsdesk@nottinghampostgroup.co.uk
Comments
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 9:01PM
“"They made an interesting comment which I jumped on and checked for myself and this is that they all have varying times for when they are operational." --- smshogun
What does this mean? Some have posted times of operation, others don't (which mean they are 24 hours). They aren't all different, and they aren't all the same. I thought that was pretty obvious to anyone who ever drove anywhere, without having to specifically "check for themselves" when jumping on a policeman's comment.”
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 8:59PM
“"On two occasions I have been stopped by the Police and they have tried to give me a FPN which I have refused" --- smshogun
Twice, no less. It is amazing how often these convenient anecdotes seem to happen to you. I drive fairly regularly in bus lanes outside their hours of operation, but have never encountered a policeman who tried to issue a ticket. It's almost as if you had invented the whole thing.”
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 8:57PM
“"Have you actually thought of looking it up?" --- smshogun
As has been pointed out several times, it isn't actually possible to look up something that hasn't happened, and no-one is likely to have written a document explaining how Volvo did not actually this in the early 1990's and most of their findings did not mirror the CNW report, before conveniently abandoning the exercise, just on the off chance that some daft fantasist might claim they had.
If there is a simple clear statement that what you said is true, post it; if not, remain branded a ludicrous buffoon.”
by smshogun
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 7:06PM
“Paul, I can give a couple of my experiences of driving in bus lanes which may partially answer your question.
On two occasions I have been stopped by the Police and they have tried to give me a FPN which I have refused, upon checking the signage the Police conceded they were wrong as I was outside the times for it being a bus lane. They made an interesting comment which I jumped on and checked for myself and this is that they all have varying times for when they are operational.”
by smshogun
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 7:03PM
“Have you actually thought of looking it up? no, because it world show you up for what you are and your ego couldn't stand it.”
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 5:50PM
“"the information is readily accessible to anyone interested." --- smshogun
And yet, strangely, you refuse to produce it. It's almost as if you had made the whole thing up. Again.”
by smshogun
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 2:32PM
“Its interesting how you try to claim I have made up facts, even though you have been caught lying on more than one occasion, so keep wriggling and twisting as all the information is readily accessible to anyone interested.”
by paulr27
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 11:19AM
“I am sure that bus lanes also play a significant part in increasing pollution levels in some parts of Nottingham. I haev yet to see any evidence that they increase people using buses - I believe there was a survey a year or so ago that showed bus us went DOWN after bus lanes introduced.
I don't believe that bus lanes have reduced car use significantly and they also increase risk of serious accidents as drivers cant drive in left hand lane and are closer to oncoming traffic. I suspect that any minute reduction in car use is more than made up in increased pollution levels from cars being forced to wait much longer than necessary at junctions.
There are no 24 hour buses in Nottingham so surely we should not have ANY 24 hour bus lanes. Would be nice if the Post could carry out an independent and unbiased survey into the mostly negative effects that bus lanes have on the quality of life in Nottingham.”
by Runner_Pete
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 10:06AM
“For pity's sake, microgrammes per metre cubed is NOT mg/m3, it's µg/m3 - it makes an AWFUL lot of difference! In fact 51µg/m3 for a major city centre is actually a very reaosnable level.
"Any increase in traffic may confuse monitoring results."
Eh? Monitoring results are just quantitative data output, there is no confusion, they are what they are. Although this could infer that the monitoring locations are not sited at relevant receptors within the AQMA in which case there may be no direct public health exposure as defined in LAQM.TG09
I would say that these issues are more related to limited dispersion and canyon effects than purely the volume of traffic.”
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 9:18AM
“I stated that many people had pointed out the holes in the CNW report, and provided links to them so anyone can look for themselves and draw their own conclusion. You stated that many people provided support for the CNW report, but failed to provide a single documented example.
You stated that Volvo had failed in their attempts to carry out a similar study. I suggested that this was yet another of your invented "facts." If I am correct, it is impossible to disprove, any more than it is possible to provide documentary evidence to disprove any other invented daft statement, since, by definition, none exists. Of course, if it was true, you could prove it very easily by simply pointing to any of the information that is "readily available online for anyone who cares to look."
Until you do, it's added to the increasingly vast array of made-up statements that you have made on a wide variety of subjects, adding up to a picture in which you are a daft fantasist, who thinks he can win arguments by making assertions that he hopes no-one will question, and blustering in a rather pathetic manner when called on them.”