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news
Princess Parkway (via StreetView).jpgGreater Manchester air pollution worse than previously thought
According to a report published this week, 152 stretches of road in Greater Manchester will still be in breach of legal limits for concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) beyond 2020 unless action is taken – 14 times as many as previously feared.
A July 2017 study by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) predicted that 11 stretches of the region’s roads would be over the legal limit of 40 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre of air by the end of 2020. However, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) concludes that the problem is likely to be far, far worse.
You can see the roads likely to be in breach of the threshold on an interactive map here.
GMCA says that the reasons for the increase are because vehicles using Greater Manchester’s roads are typically older than the national average (especially buses and taxis); that local traffic data showed that in some areas vehicles are moving more slowly than the national modelling anticipated; and because local modelling also showed higher background concentrations of NO2.
Motor traffic causes 80 per cent of NO2 emissions at the roadside – mainly from diesel vehicles.
In June, the city announced plans for the UK's biggest network of cycling and walking routes, but Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is working with the 10 Greater Manchester councils to produce a Clean Air Plan and a host of other measures are also up for consideration.
These include: increasing public transport capacity; upgrading or retrofitting the public transport fleet to run on cleaner engines; increasing the use of electric vehicles by expanding the electric charging point network or through financial incentives; better traffic management; encouraging use of alternative fuels; and potentially introducing Clean Air Zones, where the most polluting vehicles would attract a penalty payment.
Chris Boardman – now Greater Manchester’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner – has previously referred to the number of deaths linked to NO2 as a “national emergency” and a “full-blown crisis.”
Councillor Alex Ganotis, GMCA Green City Region Lead, said: “Nitrogen dioxide is an invisible killer, and drivers and their passengers often don’t realise that the air inside their car can be dirtier than outside.
“We can all make small changes to help clean up our air. For example, driving less and walking or cycling more can help reduce your exposure to air pollution and also cut emissions. We’re looking at ways to help more people do this.
“But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact this is a looming public health crisis which needs urgent national action. We’re calling on Government to give Greater Manchester the tools we need to tackle the problem together – this means a local vehicle scrappage scheme and funding for cleaner engines for buses and taxis.
“In developing our Clean Air Plan, Greater Manchester is following a strictly defined process set out by Government to run feasibility studies on potential NO2 air pollution compliance measures.
“I want to be clear that a congestion charge is not being considered as part of this process. But we do have to consider how we ensure that dirty vehicles are not polluting our air. This is a major public health problem for Greater Manchester.
“Government must also act to make sure Highways England, which runs the motorway network around Greater Manchester, tackles air pollution on and near our motorways.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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So basically everywhere that regularly has a long line of slow moving or stationary traffic. Who'd have thought it! I'm so glad I don't commute into Manchester anymore, although by luck rather than judgement I avoided quite a lot of it. I'd imagine that every town with any congestion hotspots are over the limit too in those areas. It doesn't help that, as in almost every other big city, public transport infrastructure still has a long way to go to support switching people from cars to public transport or the facilities to make it easy to cycle, securely park your bike and shower is minimal.
TfGM and Andy Burnham (Mayor of Manchester) have been tweeting stuff around this for a while - surveys of travelling, adverts for the Metrolink and so on - and the responses make for depressing reading.
Stuff like:
remove all the bus lanes and allow drivers to use them
roadworks should only be done at night so drivers have better access
stop building cycle lanes and give more space to cars
Mancunians are convinced it's all a council conspiracy to introduce congestion charging (which was roundly rejected in a referendum a few years ago).
Last Tuesday there was a big accident on the M62 which, couple with a match at Old Trafford, roadworks elsewhere and diveretd traffic off the M62 caused gridlock in the city. The Manchester Evening News reported numerous cases of people taking an hour to go 2 or 3 miles. And all the the social media users could come up with was that it was all the Mayor's fault. It's like - no, YOU were the one who elected to drive a 2-ton metal box a mile into the city centre instead of walking!
I was fine, my 12 minute walk across town to the station still took 12 minutes.
Commuting in/out of town by car is particularly insane behaviour at the moment.
And individuals persist in blaming 'traffic', as though they're not 'traffic'.
"But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact this is a looming public health crisis"
what makes us us think that it’s only "looming" ("someone else's problem, they can get around to fixing it in a few years"), as opposed to "loomed"? There’s plenty of evidence that these sort of pollution levels have been killing people for a while now.
if bikes had the potential to pollute the atmosphere to even half this extent, they’d have been banned years ago.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
It's only Manchester.
Let's see what Chris Boardman does with it first.
As depressing as it is, I'm liking that pollution map. Is there one for the rest of UK/England or more specifically Bristol?
Bristol.
https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=74a102b2bc5c4509a0...
My commute mostly ordinary red where I use the road. My pregnant Mrs' walk to work through dark reds up to Bedminster Down.
That's great.
Unfortunately, most of Bristol is in the red, but that's not surprising.
And with impeccable timing, the chancellor announces that he'll be spending a lot more of our taxes buidling more roads to make the situation even worse. Not to worry though, there is the customary crumb for other modes, something like £650m, while the roads get billions.
Seriously, has there ever been such a completely incompetent, disconnected, hypocritical government?
Hard to see the car use falling anytime soon.
Hard to see the Government doing much either.
Car is King.
Yeah, a couple of stretches on my commute are red. Basically wherever the traffic builds up and queues form.
My commute seems to be mostly orange or red. Well, okay. That's kinda special.
"Motor traffic causes 80 per cent of NO2 emissions at the roadside"
Only 80%? There must be some really toxic trees, plants and pedestrians out there.
or gas central heating boilers.........
That'll be wood burners along the A 5145 then.
Not seen many gas boilers on the roadside round here let alone in Manchester.
Surely all roadside emissions must be made by roadusers?
Probably, as would an air monitoring station in a cow field only pick up bovine methane emissions.
I would assume it's a mis-statement when what is meant is 'responsible for 80% of the NO2 present at roadsides'?
Some of it presumably is emitted elsewhere but adds to the general background level across the city?
Who cares, it’s not like the government will do anything to fix this...
No surprises where the deadliest streets are:
Not to mention local town centre black spots in Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Stockport