Clean Air Greater Manchester

Wherenext, as far as I know, there are still 2 independent companies who have contracts to operate buses in Manchester. The contracts have 2 / 3 years to run, and negotiations to cancel the contracts have failed and the matter is being referred to the courts.

We were at the Man City v Arsenal game a few weeks ago, an announcement was made at halftime informing people that, due to operational problems, there would be no bus service from the ground into the city centre after the match.

What a shambles! 

Didn’t know things were that bad Pliers, it is indeed bad for the City.

This is an interesting little video, some very salient points highlighting the legacy of the 1980’s.

https://youtu.be/0aDWJR1X0yo

There’s an awful lot of work to be done to encourage folks to leave their cars behind in places. In other places, more rural, it will be even more difficult.

There’s an awful lot of work to be done to encourage folks to leave their cars behind in places. In other places, more rural, it will be even more difficult.
 

In many cases it will not be more difficult as it will be impossible due to the reduction in public transport infrastructure. So many route and frequency reductions make it not feasible.

 I think what they are trying to do in Manchester is reasonable. They want to clean up the air to a generally acceptable level. They are starting by excluding pre- Euro 6 vehicles, likely to be at least 8 years old. Those entering with dirty vehicles pay the penalty.

We have created these large congested cities which are very dirty and unhealthy places, concentrating too many people and vehicles, too much infrastructure in a restricted space, and grown them bigger until they are dirty overcrowded monsters.

As far as visiting Greater Manchester or London etc is concerned, there is no change of Mrs nockle and I doing that. We will continue to avoid them like the plague. 

I suppose I'm old enough to remember past pollution levels when the buildings of virtually every UK city were black with soot and grime and smog was a regular feature. Respiratory illnesses reduced life expectancy. Now we have a less visible pollution problem but still extremely unhealthy for us and the planet. So moves to improve things are welcome. I see there is a three year exemption (if I've read things correctly) and the changeover will gradually take effect but we'll be seeing more of these moves towards cleaner air and will have to adapt in the long term.

Thanks Pliers.

Our local AM (Welsh MP) had a surgery in our local village hall the other day as part of a survey she is undertaking to gauge the constituents needs vis-a-vis Public Transport. It was one of her main pledges in the recent elections to try to do something about it so MiL and quite a few other regular users of what constitutes a bus service had their say. Hopefully things will eventually improve for them.

Locally the Welsh Government have been trialing a reduction in speed limit on the main arterial route to the M56, the one that goes past Queensferry and Sealand RAF camp from the A55 for those in the know. They brought it down to 50mph as a pollution reducing effort and they state that it was successful in reducing the emission levels quite significantly. Not everyone kept to the limits and there was no enforceable punishment but they decided to now make it a compulsory limit with appropriate speeding fines, presumably done via average speed cameras.

I have started to see these pollution reducing limits elsewhere on my travels and wonder how widespread they are becoming. Any improvement in the quality of the air will help.

We have created these large congested cities which are very dirty and unhealthy places, concentrating too many people and vehicles, too much infrastructure in a restricted space, and grown them bigger until they are dirty overcrowded monsters.

Having lived in Liverpool and Manchester between them for 18 years I cannot remember them being anything but dirty and unhealthy. The air is just as polluted now but from an increase in vehicle usage whereas 50 years ago the pollution came from chimneys and a reduced number of vehicles with higher polluting engines than todays models but less of them.

is reduction of the speed limit in the name of reducing pollution just another excuse to lower the limit? I bet many big cars struggle to maintain top gear at 50mph. Around the country loads of NSL are being reduced to 50 or 40 .... also under the name of safety.

It wasn't an excuse ED. It actually worked. They monitored the air over an extensive period. And it wasn't that hard to keep to 50 in top. Other gears are allowed.

I think you have to bear in mind that there have been a couple of high profile cases of councils and DoT being alerted to coroners findings that Traffic Pollution had a significant impact in some young adults deaths. If they don't do something then they are going to be sued or prosecuted.

When driving on the Manchester motorway system be very alert.Two weeks ago our son and his girlfriend were nearly killed on the M67 when "youths" were lobbing bricks at cars on the motorway near Stockport./4 cars were hit.Thanks to good fortune nobody was killed.

A half brick came through the rear window of their car and left deep scratch marks down the back ot the driver's seat.

Manchester is a place through which we have to drive to get westwards or to visit his OH's family-not somewhere we would go to otherwise,cleaner air or not!