London (in particular)?

Question

With the ever increasing debate on carbon emissions, the rise in fuel duties, vehicle tax, congestion charging and the banding of parking according to the vehicles emissions (in an increasing number of London boroughs)
When is the government going to clamp down and penalise the biggest polluters in London, namely the antiquated London buses and London taxis. Have any figures been released on these and their contribution? They are are chucking it out 24hrs a day, seven days a week..... What price do they pay?? In the years i've commuted into London, I've only seen 1 solitary 'green' (hydrocell, i believe) bus on trial. Time for Ken to put his hands in his pocket and divert some of his CC cash on developing a greener London I think. And that doesn't mean opening up more cycle lanes at the expense of the already harassed motorist. As for Cabbies.. why not legislate a fleet of hybrids??

Answer 1

Unfortunately I don´t agree, the London buses and taxis are very low carbon emission and they are high tecnology, actually, the problem is that people get fanatic cause of publicity believing all they hear in TV, the problem with London is that taxes doesn´t make UK lead any reform about a green world, to give money to the goverment doesnt change anything, if you would tell me they will seed trees...VAT, London Council, taxes on rabish, 20 percent of taxes on every salary, the most expensive transport in the world which at the same time present high levels of criminality, to get on board of the 18 or 207 even at 4pm is a nightmare, you can be abused even pushed out of the bus for teens, there is not one police NEVER to help you, when supervisors arrived they bring 10 and 15 policie in bad and silly mood against people, congestion charge, fines, every single street of London produced a media of one million pounds a year...all the goverment solutions including, smoking, drinking pass for more taxes: always some smart guy arrives with a new innovative solution...FOR TAXES.. family in London is loosing 60 percent...60 PERCENT of income in taxes...please, the globlal warming comes from a high season in dark spots in the sun...THIS IS THE NEW BUSSINESS FOR NEW TAXES IN COMPANIES AND CONSUMERS ...Nobody wants the chip in the car and they insist though will cost 60 BILLION POUNDS...plus the Olimpics 9.3 billions pounds budget so far, they have 4 years of war...have you heard about the urgency of building houses in London, that the crisis of the NHS is for a debt of 50 million pounds??, have you heard that London children are the poorest of Europe??, why they don´t want to lead a London where money taxes is used in what it should be...In contributers...cause is really urgent, really, really urgent...

Answer 2

Pollution - what is it?

Obvious answer is the stuff we can see - smoke, particulates, fumes.

Mind you, particulates can be settle out by collecting towers, and even naturally by settlement.

London buses and cabs were revolting belchers of soot (carbon solids, and therefore carbon monoxide) when they ran on diesel when I was there nearly two decades ago.

Sydney's buses WERE the same; but now they run on Natural Gas (methane/propane?) their visible smog has gone.

HOWEVER, that does not mean a decrease in Carbon emissions. Burn any engine fuel (except hydrogen) and you get CO, CO2 and straight carbon black. High fuel efficiency sees higher proportions of CO2 and hence less wastage. But a C atom is a C atom, in whatever form.

The less visible pollutants are the ones to be more frightened of as well !!!!

All internal combustion engines emit oxides of nitrogen (even hydrogen gas powered engines), and the trick is to reduce them to a minimum, as they react with CO to make even nastier complexes in smog - photochemical smog (with light).

So the reactions are complex; but removal of one or more of the products as best we can means that there is less emission that will contribute to the greenhouse effect; which then may well perpetuate itself.

Oh, and in eastern Australia (well over half the surface area), taxis (what we call cabs) are fueled by natural gas; actually called LP Gas - huge cost saving (in Oz) irrespective of the size of the vehicle (and they do range from stretch limos down to people mover vans, and the vast majority are family sized cars - 5 seater, V6, large; by UK standards.

Yes, I like the concept of Hybrids

We have used duel fuel for decades
We are starting the use LP Gas injection in diesels
We have the Toyota Prius.
We have just started receiving the Lexus RX400 Hybrid, which I rode in whilst in Canada last year - very expensive at present; but brilliant concept that seems to have been effectively converted to a real production car. The price of such cars will come down.

Answer 3

Before you criticise the buses too much, consider how many people they carry. It may well be that the overall pollutant and CO2 emissions per passanger-kilometre are considerably better than all the private cars that would replace them if buses were removed. I would seriously question whether or not they are the biggest polluters in terms of people carried.

That notwithstanding, I agree that we should have cleaner buses and taxis and that something needs to be done about it!

Answer 4

People talk about being taxed for the amount of millions of tons of co2 that we are making, but when is somebody going to tax the worlds volcano's for the gigga tons of co2 that they are producing, and the sea as the worlds temperature rises it releases even more co2. Scientists are actually saying that co2 does not cause global warming, co2 levels increase as the worlds temperature increases not the other way around,the government won't listen as they have another way of clawing more of your hard earned money off through false taxes.

Answer 5

The government of stealth,Rip off Britain.

Answer 6

ummm... buddy... buses DECREASE greenhouse gases. Remember that before you jump on legitimate businesses.

Answer 7

Good point. But taxation is not about doing anything for people - don't forget that.

Answer 8

Better convert the engines.

Answer 9

I would like to meet you. I am normal. I promise.