The Anonymous Widower

Is The Pollution Solution A Part-Solution To Terrorism?

Hong Kongers nickname their tramway the Pollution Solution. ut to be fair to one of my favourite cities, the city also has an extensive public transport network of metro lines and buses. Although, I’ve ever used any of the latter.

London and other cities in the UK have a serous air pollution problem and we should solve it for the health of us all, as pollution probably causes more premature deaths than terrorism. Or for that matter street crime like muggings and robberies!

Suppose in London we did the following to cut pollution.

• Ban polluting vehicles from a wide area of the centre.
• Impose a high Congestion Charge over a wide area.
• All shop deliveries must be at night!
• Cut the number of private hire vehicles.
• All buses, including tourist buses and coaches, private hire vehicles and black cabs must be electric.
• Rigorously impose a twenty mile per hour city-wide speed limit.
• When Crossrail is finished, build the Bakerloo Line Extension and Crossrail 2.
• Pedestrianise large parts of the City Centre.
• Improve the cycle network and make sure cyclists use it and not the pavement.

Other cities could also do similar things to suit their circumstances.

A few of our cities like Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Liverpool have pedestrianised substantial parts of their city centres. They haven’t done enough, but it’s a start.

I don’t think trams will be a pollution solution in Central London except perhaps on a specific route to overcome congestion on the Underground.

We are going to have to act very strongly to deal with pollution, but will it have collateral effects?

Some years ago, I did some work with the Police on analysing crime and I remember an analyst, who was also a Police Officer, explaining how he saw links between traffic and crime.

I remember him saying that no self-respecting criminal would go burgling on a bus.

One thing that came out of this work, was that if Police checked a car and found that one of car tax, insurance or MOT was not in order, there was a high chance of a non-motoring offence being committed. As he said, if a criminal is dealing in thousands of pounds-worth of drugs, will he bother to renew his tax and insurance?

I’ve wondered for some time, if this car checking  in Central London, which must be done by the Congestion Charge cameras  has led to the increase in crime in London committed by criminals on motor-bikes, scooters and bikes. London’s congestion could also drive crime this way.

So if we solved the pollution, would this cut the congestion? And how would this effect crime?

I don’t know, but I suspect, we’ll find out in a few years, as the draconian measures we will introduce to cut pollution, will have fundamental effects on the way we live in London.

In the next two or three years, some cross-city and city centre rail lines will will improve drammatically.

• Crossrail will open fully in December 2019 on an East-West axis in London
• The Thameslink Programme  will deliver a massive increase in capacity by December 2018 on a North South axis in London
• Waterloo International station will be reopened for suburban services and will give  a 30% capacity upgrade by 2019.
• The Northern Line Extension to Battersea could be open by 2020.
• The Ordsall Chord will open in Manchester this year.
• The Manchester Metrolink Line to Trafford Park should be running by 2020.
• The Midland Metro will have been extended in Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
• The Central Belt of Scotland will be receiving a lot of new electric trains.

However, some cities with bad pollution problems will not being seeing any public transport improvements.

It will be interesting to see the effects on pollution, congestion and crime. And terrorism!

March 23, 2017 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Crime, London, Manchester, Pollution, Terrorism