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Where's the proof?
Page 10
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For the second time in as many decades, were being asked to believe a London transport authority has got it right. Back in 1986, the London Boroughs Transport committee insisted its lorry ban had improved the quality of life for Londoners although we've never actually met one who thought so. It was the eventual completion of the M25 that ultimately kept trucks out of London, not the ban but that's another story...
Fast forward to 2008 and we have Transport for London (Tf Li insisting: "London is already benefiting from reduced emissions as a result of the low-emission zone." So soon? It was only launched in February. And, apparently, just 3,300 trucks needed modification in order to comply with it. Still, no doubt Mayor Boris Johnson is delighted that Londoners and visitors will no longer have to "...splutter on a smog of poisonous fumes belching from the exhausts of buses and lorries-. Now that's just the kind of measured language we need to bring to the debate Boris.
CM believes in cleaner road transport as much as the next Mayor. Only if TfL really wanted to improve the capital's air quality, why didn't it include diesel cars and taxis in the scheme, rather than just CVs? Nor is it good enough for TfL to say that, based upon its ability to force operators of older vehicles to go through a costly refit programme, or replace them with new trucks, it can "...estimate the impact of the LEZ on air quality, public health and the economy'. Estimate? Come, come gentlemen. If London really is "already benefiting" from the LEZ, its not unreasonable to expect you to pro vide the industry with robust long-term air-quality data to prove it especially if London ends up as the template for every other low-emission zone in the country...