Clean Air Zones


Central government slashing funding to the councils so they feel the need to try and make up this funding another way.

They would have also seen how much money the ulez zones in London are raking in.


That's not what's happening. It's because of the climate change conference in which there was a representative from each country taking part.

In the UK, every town and city was given a target which they must achieve net zero by. Sunderland is 2040 and is also why the airshow was cancelled. Newcastles is 2030.
 
350 horsepower Focus RS, not chargable. I was fully expecting to be rinsed going to Bristol & Birmingham in the same week
 
I am surprised anyone on here ever goes to Newcastle what with Ant and Dec and Sam Fender and and and

The Saudis and arrrrrrrgggghh its all too much!
 
When Newcastle announced this was coming a couple of years ago someone brought up the fact that it’s not about clean air as they’d cut down approx 1000 trees in the previous year alone, they went quiet on that one.
I drove into Brent Cross last week in the Ulez and they must be raking it in down there for £12.50 a go, the place was chocker with cars.

Most cars are exempt certainly if they are petrol... It's the diesels that have been hammered..
 
Noticed the signs are up on the way into Newcastle. Can't help but think it's a total money making scheme, which surely will dry up once everyone moves over to leccy cars in 10 yrs time or so. It'll be interesting to see whether they'll suddenly come up with some wank excuse to then charge all cars going into city centres. 🫤
If people do move over to electric cars how is it going to work on the A1 over Easter/summer/Christmas with all the people going on holiday up and down the country? I could make it up from Sandwich to Wooler on a tank of petrol. Not sure I'd make it in an electric car though without charging. If it takes, what, 15 mins to charge it up - how the hell is that going to work on the service stations up the A1? Even if there are hundreds more service stations built with chargers, it doesn't scale up. It takes a couple of minutes to fill a tank with petrol or diesel and there are still queues at peak times. Even worse when driving down France from the ferry / tunnel on a Saturday. Queues backed out to the motorway.
 
If people do move over to electric cars how is it going to work on the A1 over Easter/summer/Christmas with all the people going on holiday up and down the country? I could make it up from Sandwich to Wooler on a tank of petrol. Not sure I'd make it in an electric car though without charging. If it takes, what, 15 mins to charge it up - how the hell is that going to work on the service stations up the A1? Even if there are hundreds more service stations built with chargers, it doesn't scale up. It takes a couple of minutes to fill a tank with petrol or diesel and there are still queues at peak times. Even worse when driving down France from the ferry / tunnel on a Saturday. Queues backed out to the motorway.


it was obvious this would happen as well. push for people to use EV's and then tax it. I wouldn't be surprised if they create some way that'll make people pay more for recharging cars

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Can you prove that, or is this just your suspicion?

Whenever there's any kind of financial disincentive, there's people who say, oh it isn't about [bad thing] it's about making money for the [council/police/government]

I don't work for Newcastle City Council and have nothing to do with their clean air zone. So with no skin in the game, I'd be interested to hear what evidence you have that the clean air zone is "nothing to do with clean air".

My problem with the Newcastle scheme is the polluted roads are taking extra traffic from previous road closures which is compounding the issue. 2 of the highest polluted roads have had parallel or junction roads shut.


Percy street, coincidentally where the bus station is, has no entry onto Gallowgate for cars and Mosley Street now has no junctions with Grey Street, High Level birdge is shut and Dean Street onto Akenside is loading vehicles only iirc. Fourth highest polluted is Gosforth high street which is outside the clean air zone. The Gateshead side of the Tyne bridge traffic has increased as the full junction at the end of Askew Road is closed.

The whole thing seems half arsed and avoidable. I don't disagree everyone should have the right to breathe clean air, but taxation is going hit the poorest hardest. I would prefer to see some of the underused bus lanes removed to increase road capacity, and serious thought given to junction planning to improve flow.
 
They also don't want to fund public transport properly either. Bit of a shambles really.
Wholeheartedly agree. The problem is that public transport stopped being a service in the 1980s and 1990s, and turned into a business. The incentives for the bus and train companies are all wrong and it leads to them over-serving certain routes and under-serving unprofitable routes.

Newcastle and plenty of other cities all made a huge mistake in the 50-60s as well, by pulling out the tram network.
 
My problem with the Newcastle scheme is the polluted roads are taking extra traffic from previous road closures which is compounding the issue. 2 of the highest polluted roads have had parallel or junction roads shut.


Percy street, coincidentally where the bus station is, has no entry onto Gallowgate for cars and Mosley Street now has no junctions with Grey Street, High Level birdge is shut and Dean Street onto Akenside is loading vehicles only iirc. Fourth highest polluted is Gosforth high street which is outside the clean air zone. The Gateshead side of the Tyne bridge traffic has increased as the full junction at the end of Askew Road is closed.

The whole thing seems half arsed and avoidable. I don't disagree everyone should have the right to breathe clean air, but taxation is going hit the poorest hardest. I would prefer to see some of the underused bus lanes removed to increase road capacity, and serious thought given to junction planning to improve flow.
Removing bus lanes and increasing junction capacity will only lead to more people driving, then that capacity gets filled and you're back to square one very quickly, it's called induced demand.
 
Removing bus lanes and increasing junction capacity will only lead to more people driving, then that capacity gets filled and you're back to square one very quickly, it's called induced demand.

I would suspect most drivers enter the clean air zone because they feel there's no alternative. One of the most polluted areas is where the bus station is, and we know taxis and busses will pass the cost onto the public, and the metro serves a select a small population of the area. If businesses have to upgrade their fleet that cost will eventually passed on, and when everyone is under the strain of cost of living currently what do people do? Seems to me the best solution currently is to scrap this and actually think it through a bit better. Think about your road systems, think about junctions, think about the one-way systems they introduce, get that traffic flowing better and if that means opening up closed roads then they should do it.

fwiw I do think the Metro system is the way forward, but it will require much more funding to connect more places up.
 
I would suspect most drivers enter the clean air zone because they feel there's no alternative. One of the most polluted areas is where the bus station is, and we know taxis and busses will pass the cost onto the public, and the metro serves a select a small population of the area. If businesses have to upgrade their fleet that cost will eventually passed on, and when everyone is under the strain of cost of living currently what do people do? Seems to me the best solution currently is to scrap this and actually think it through a bit better. Think about your road systems, think about junctions, think about the one-way systems they introduce, get that traffic flowing better and if that means opening up closed roads then they should do it.

fwiw I do think the Metro system is the way forward, but it will require much more funding to connect more places up.
Businesses are being given grants to support with the transition. That should help with the financial aspects to some degree.

The solution is definitely not making driving even easier. You will induce demand and end up back at square one. That is good for no one in the medium to long term. This isn't a scheme pulled out of thin air, plenty of consideration and modelling has gone into it.

Really what is needed is proper investment from central government in public transport to increase frequencies and routes on the bus and Metro network, with more priority given to buses to increase their reliability and reduce journey times. People need legitimate alternatives to driving.
 

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