Sadiq Khan to introduce £10 toxicity charge for London’s most polluting vehicles

Talk about using a sticking plaster to fix a bullet wound!

It's time to have a real war on motorists (rather than the oft-quoted meaning in the Daily Wail). Start with banning cars - alternate even and odd plates for example so on Day 1 anyone with a 57, 59, 61 etc plate is banned, the next day it's 58, 60, 62 etc that are banned. Exceptions obviously for buses, emergency services etc. 

No more PHV licences. There are already far too many taxis trundling round empty adding to the congestion and pollution. Start an enforced scrappage for the older diesel black cabs, for every 3 off the road you can allow one new electric one.

Restart the cycle superhighway construction. That's been allowed to grind to a near halt because of NIMBYs and never-ending "consultations".

I admit there's a few details to iron out in all of that lot but FFS, London's air pollution has exceeded yearly allowances already and we're only in mid February! It needs dramatic action, not some token gesture of an extra tenner...

The Mayor can say that he is at least doing something even if it will have neglible effect on the actual NOx polution levels. He'll be criticised no matter what he does. Politics.

It's a massive failure of regulation as much as anything else. The biggest problem is the decades of testing carried out to meet unrealistic European emission standards and the associated decades of lack of progress  (e.g. https://www.transportenvironment.org/docs/Bulletin/2006/2006-02_bulletin... which said *in 2006* that there had been no real NOx progress in the previous 13 years!). The VW cheating is a relative side-issue (although appalling).

Its equally unrealistic to start throwing out relatively new cars. Just don't use them so much. I can't afford to replace my ten year old Audi diesel estate with anything vaguely equivalent and clean. Then again, I hardly drive anywhere. People regard me as eccentric [partly...!] because I cycle in London (arriving on my Brompton looking rather like the guy out of W1A).  

I lived in London for nearly twenty years and never paid the congestion charge - I never felt the need to drive in the central area.

In addition, the mayor should scrap his calls forcompensation for diesel car users, but instead offer (or suggest the government offers) a scrappage scheme like that in Oslo where drivers receive funding towards a cargo bike in return fro givingup their car.

Other incentives like concessionary car club membership or similar for car hire are long overdue.

Reducing the scandalous subsidised parking that clutters up the side roads and more making journeys all he more inconvenient for cycling (and bus users).

This fear of confrontation with car-users has go be tackled. 

Non-essential journeys in single occupancy vehicles. Peak time rat-running / school run congestion. This is no longer the tread-lightly territory that it has been.

The online compliance checkers are about as user unfriendly as they could be. I thought you'd just pop your reg number in and get a yes/no, wishful thinking!

The area selected on the map is tiny.

Much of the worst pollution occurs on those boundary roads - Marylebone, Old Kent Rd and the rest.

If they were included these measures would be a bit more meaningful.

The mayor has also shown little willingness so far to promote cycling with his new commissioner appearing to be prepared to listen those groups that have caused such problems for campaigners over the last year.

Nothing short of a Grid network  will suffice. The map shown would be a start - filtering the e -w nd n -s  routes. This would demonstrate how excessive vehicle use can be tackled to the oute boroughs.

Meanwhile the mayor has to show he is serious about his commitment to a mini-Holland in every borough (though eveb this term he is worried aboout it sounding a bit too contentious for the pro-rat-running mobs).

Meanwhile thechildren of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham continue to breath in dirty air and suffer the health effects.

Surely this is something that should be adopted by all urban areas not just a select few. And frankly how many kids live in that small area anyway, multimillionaires excluded.

Surely it's better than nowt guys? Anyway, a Mexico City 'Hoy No Circula' style scheme is what I'd like to see given a trial, but there's fat chance of that happening.

http://www.airqualitynews.com/2016/04/21/all-top-diesel-cars-break-real-...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/21/all-top-selling-cars-br...

Don't you read the news??

It's also carbon footprint vs air pollution. If everyone owning a pre 2005 car scraps it and goes out and buys a new car (assuming, of course, that they can afford to), well isn't it something like 90% of a car's carbon footprint is supposed to be in its manufacturing...? So air pollution 10 out of 10, but minus several million for carbon footprint...

Too little too late, total window dressing.

"The owners of diesel and petrol vehicles manufactured before 2005 that do not meet Euro 4 emissions standards "

The problem is the vehicles that are supposed to meet these standards don't. And that likely includes vehicles that are supposed to meet even more stringent standards.

Real news would be an announcement that 500,000 electric vehicle charging points are to be installed for cabs, buses, delivery vehicles etc.