The ULEZ expands from central London to outer London on 25 October 2021. What does that mean for you and cycling?
What do drivers pay already?
London has had a congestion charge since 2003, covering central London only, which has been shown to reduce the amount of motor traffic in the city centre. It currently runs 7am-10pm daily and costs £15. Since 2019, the same zone also is covered by the ULEZ to tackle poor air quality. It costs £12.50 per day for vehicles that do not meet the minimum emission standards.
What is changing?
ULEZ is expanding on 25 October to a much bigger area, going up to, but not including, the North and South Circular roads.
Trading clunkers for electric bikes: France moves to offer financial incentive | Reuters
Reuters April 11, 2021
PARIS, April 11 (Reuters) – France is offering the owners of old, exhaust-belching cars the opportunity to hand over their vehicles for scrap in return for a 2,500 euro ($2,975.00) grant to buy an electric bicycle.
Lawmakers in the National Assembly have just approved the measure in a preliminary vote. It was an amendment to a draft climate bill passing through parliament that aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels.
If adopted, France will become the first country in the world to offer people the chance to trade in an ageing vehicle for an electric or folding bicycle, the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB) said.
“For the first time it is recognised that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” said Olivier Schneider of the FUB.
Road pricing “inevitable,” MPs are told as switch to electric vehicles hits tax revenues | road.cc
Transport Select Committee urged to recommend development and trial of how to get drivers to pay for their journeys
Road pricing is “inevitable,” a House of Commons committee has been told, with tax revenues from motorists due to plummet as a result of the switch to electric vehicles.
The call to start charging motorists to use roads nationwide was made yesterday at an oral evidence session on the issue held by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee by Toby Poston, director of corporate affairs at the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).
He urged a trial system to be developed to help meet an estimated £31 billion reduction in revenue from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and fuel duty as private motorists and fleet operators increasingly switch to zero emission vehicles.
“It is imperative that road pricing is considered and trialled now to ensure a smooth transition into a new system,” he said.
“Drivers and fleet operators need clarity on future taxation as they make the transition to zero-emission road transport.”
While some road pricing does exist – notably, the congestion charging zones in Durham and London, or charges to use infrastructure such as the Dartford Crossing and the M6 toll road – successive administrations have resisted introducing a nationwide road pricing system.
U.K. Government’s Plan To Save The Planet Majors On More Car Journeys
Carlton Reid Oct 19, 2021“For years, going green was inextricably bound up with a sense that we have to sacrifice the things we love,” writes U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a foreword to the U.K. government’s long-awaited Net Zero Strategy, published today less than two weeks until the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
“But this strategy,” Johnson continued in trademark-style, “shows how we can build back greener, without so much as a hair shirt in sight.”
The U.K. government’s strategy pins many hopes on the electrification of the U.K.’s 40 million registered motor vehicles.
“In 2050, we will still be driving cars,” said Johnson, “but they will be electric gliding silently around our cities.”
The first point featured in the press release announcing the strategy is car-focussed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re going further and faster than ever to tackle climate change. Our plans for an ambitious zero emission vehicle mandate show that we’re leading the world on the switch to EVs.”
Carbon emissions from England’s roads plan ‘100 times greater than government claims’ | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian (April 2021)
Gwyn Topham Tue 6 Apr 2021
Carbon emissions from England’s planned £27bn roadbuilding programme will be about 100 times greater than the government has stated, according to expert witnesses in a court challenge.
Environmental campaigners are seeking a judicial review of the second roads investment strategy (RIS2), which was described by ministers when launched as “the largest ever investment in English strategic roads”, paying for 4,000 miles of road and including such schemes as the Lower Thames Crossing and the Stonehenge tunnel.
Lawyers for Transport Action Network (TAN) claim that the strategy is incompatible with climate crisis commitments. Government lawyers have argued that the additional net greenhouse gases from the roadbuilding are de minimis, or too small to be material.
Phil Goodwin, emeritus professor of transport policy at UCL, said in a deposition that “the total emissions of carbon from RIS2 schemes reported by Highways England in its separate scheme appraisals give a number which is roundly 100 times greater than that suggested by DfT witnesses”.
(Reminder of action needed) CS11 Blocked : Westminster wins legal challenge against TfL over Swiss Cottage to Regent’s Park cycle route | Hampstead Highgate Express
CS11 BLOCKED: Westminster City Council wins legal challenge against Transport for London, meaning cycle scheme will not go ahead in current form
The CS11 cycle route from Swiss Cottage to Regent’s Park has been sensationally blocked by a High Court judge in what seems set to be a landmark ruling.
Anti-CS11 campaigners Jessica Learmond-Criqui and Daniel Howard outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Picture: POLLY HANCOCK – Credit: Archant
Sir Ross Cranston, presiding over the case, ruled Westminster City Council was right in its legal challenge heard last week at the same court, and that Transport for London’s current plans for the route are unlawful.
It effectively sends TfL back to the drawing board to come up with fuller traffic modelling, and the prospect of consulting over a new scheme. A consultation on the original programme found 60% support across London – except in the areas that actually neighboured the route, where there was strong opposition.
TfL said this morning it was already considering appealing the decision.
The ruling, in a sparse courtroom at the High Court in the Strand, follows a judicial review hearing on Thursday last week at which the transport authority argued it had the “whip hand” over councils on strategic planning matters, stemming from laws passed in 1999 to set up the body and the mayor of London’s office.
Bicycle thief is jailed for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because victims forced to drive instead | Daily Mail Online (Feb 2020)
A bicycle thief has been jailed for three years for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because his victims would be forced to drive their cars instead.
A judge at Brussels Criminal Court heard the man in his 40s stole a cycle in October and has 17 previous convictions.
The judge said: ‘It is therefore advisable to severely punish the defendant who commits crimes the gravity of which is important for the planet, since the victim deprived of his bicycle has no other option than to use a more polluting means of transport.
Ecological crimes are usually restricted to actions that have a more direct impact on the environment, like polluting rivers or emitting greenhouse gases.
But campaigners are increasingly calling for the scope of such crimes to be greatly widened.
New campaign launched to encourage use of public transport in the UK – Global Railway Review
The Way Forward campaign is calling on the UK government to encourage the use of public transport in order to ensure a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A national campaign to help to get people back on board public transport in the UK has been launched by sustainable transport charity, Campaign for Better Transport.
The Way Forward campaign is calling on the UK government to support public transport by actively encouraging people to use buses, trains, coaches and trams as restrictions ease and introducing an incentive scheme to help to boost passenger numbers as part of a national plan to place public transport at the heart of a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive of CfBT said: “The events of the last year have made people less confident about using public transport, but, as restrictions continue to ease, we all need to start getting back on board. That’s why we’ve launched this campaign to urge the government to reassure people that public transport is safe again and to introduce a national scheme of discounted fares to encourage people to use it.
The sound of cities: noise pollution and why it matters – Centre for London (2019)
London is alive with the sounds of humanity. The rumble of the tube. The piercing ring of a siren. The drilling. The shouting. The honking. These are modern sounds created by a 21st century society, but noise pollution isn’t a modern trend.
According to Peter Ackroyd, a novelist and poet, 18th century London “rang with the hammers of artisans and the cries of tradesmen”, producing more noise than anywhere else in the country. Industrialised London was the noisiest city in the whole world, according to Walter Besant. Hogarth translated the maddening sounds of London onto canvas in his 1741 painting, which depicted an enraged musician despairing at the cacophony of sounds around him.
Although urban noise isn’t new, it hasn’t ever really been taken seriously as a public health issue that policy can help resolve. Have we underestimated the harm that noise has on our neighbourhoods, our health and our wellbeing?
Sound and health
There is increasing evidence that long-term exposure to noise pollution has negative effects on health. Cases of anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes have been shown to increase when noise levels do. According to the World Health Organisation, 1.6 million healthy life years are lost every year because of environmental noise, mainly due to the cortisol that it makes us release.
The wonder material we all need but is running out – BBC Future
In late 2019, the International Tripartite Rubber Council warned the global supply would fall short by one million tonnes (900,000 tons) in 2020, around 7% of production. Then the pandemic hit.
Demand reduced immediately, and driven miles – the key measure for ultimate demand for rubber – dropped as countries went into lockdown. But rubber soon bounced back. “Demand outpaced even the most bullish predictions,” says Meyer. As they came out of lockdown, Chinese citizens bought huge numbers of new cars, thanks to fears around the safety of public transport. Similar patterns are expected globally. “Demand has since eclipsed supply,” says Meyer. “Now there is an acute shortage (of rubber) in destinations, and inventory held by tyre makers is very low.”Although synthetic rubber can be produced from petrochemicals, natural rubber has unique properties which even these synthetics can’t match: natural latex gloves are more resistant to tear than nitrile ones, while aircraft tyres use natural rubber for its high elasticity and resistance to heat, which can build up from friction during landing.
And once the rubber shortage begins to bite and prices climb, farmers will be incentivised to clear tropical rainforest to plant more rubber. Although palm oil plantations have received far more attention, rubber plantations can be just as bad for biodiversity loss, according to Warren-Thomas.
![](https://camdencyclists.org.uk/wp-content/themes/dynamik-gen/images/content-filler.png)
Trading clunkers for electric bikes: France moves to offer financial incentive | Reuters
Reuters April 11, 2021
PARIS, April 11 (Reuters) – France is offering the owners of old, exhaust-belching cars the opportunity to hand over their vehicles for scrap in return for a 2,500 euro ($2,975.00) grant to buy an electric bicycle.
Lawmakers in the National Assembly have just approved the measure in a preliminary vote. It was an amendment to a draft climate bill passing through parliament that aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels.
If adopted, France will become the first country in the world to offer people the chance to trade in an ageing vehicle for an electric or folding bicycle, the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB) said.
“For the first time it is recognised that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” said Olivier Schneider of the FUB.
Road pricing “inevitable,” MPs are told as switch to electric vehicles hits tax revenues | road.cc
Transport Select Committee urged to recommend development and trial of how to get drivers to pay for their journeys
Road pricing is “inevitable,” a House of Commons committee has been told, with tax revenues from motorists due to plummet as a result of the switch to electric vehicles.
The call to start charging motorists to use roads nationwide was made yesterday at an oral evidence session on the issue held by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee by Toby Poston, director of corporate affairs at the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).
He urged a trial system to be developed to help meet an estimated £31 billion reduction in revenue from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and fuel duty as private motorists and fleet operators increasingly switch to zero emission vehicles.
“It is imperative that road pricing is considered and trialled now to ensure a smooth transition into a new system,” he said.
“Drivers and fleet operators need clarity on future taxation as they make the transition to zero-emission road transport.”
While some road pricing does exist – notably, the congestion charging zones in Durham and London, or charges to use infrastructure such as the Dartford Crossing and the M6 toll road – successive administrations have resisted introducing a nationwide road pricing system.
U.K. Government’s Plan To Save The Planet Majors On More Car Journeys
Carlton Reid Oct 19, 2021“For years, going green was inextricably bound up with a sense that we have to sacrifice the things we love,” writes U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a foreword to the U.K. government’s long-awaited Net Zero Strategy, published today less than two weeks until the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
The U.K. government’s strategy pins many hopes on the electrification of the U.K.’s 40 million registered motor vehicles.
“In 2050, we will still be driving cars,” said Johnson, “but they will be electric gliding silently around our cities.”
The first point featured in the press release announcing the strategy is car-focussed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re going further and faster than ever to tackle climate change. Our plans for an ambitious zero emission vehicle mandate show that we’re leading the world on the switch to EVs.”
Carbon emissions from England’s roads plan ‘100 times greater than government claims’ | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian (April 2021)
Gwyn Topham Tue 6 Apr 2021
Carbon emissions from England’s planned £27bn roadbuilding programme will be about 100 times greater than the government has stated, according to expert witnesses in a court challenge.
Environmental campaigners are seeking a judicial review of the second roads investment strategy (RIS2), which was described by ministers when launched as “the largest ever investment in English strategic roads”, paying for 4,000 miles of road and including such schemes as the Lower Thames Crossing and the Stonehenge tunnel.
Lawyers for Transport Action Network (TAN) claim that the strategy is incompatible with climate crisis commitments. Government lawyers have argued that the additional net greenhouse gases from the roadbuilding are de minimis, or too small to be material.
Phil Goodwin, emeritus professor of transport policy at UCL, said in a deposition that “the total emissions of carbon from RIS2 schemes reported by Highways England in its separate scheme appraisals give a number which is roundly 100 times greater than that suggested by DfT witnesses”.
(Reminder of action needed) CS11 Blocked : Westminster wins legal challenge against TfL over Swiss Cottage to Regent’s Park cycle route | Hampstead Highgate Express
CS11 BLOCKED: Westminster City Council wins legal challenge against Transport for London, meaning cycle scheme will not go ahead in current form
The CS11 cycle route from Swiss Cottage to Regent’s Park has been sensationally blocked by a High Court judge in what seems set to be a landmark ruling.
Anti-CS11 campaigners Jessica Learmond-Criqui and Daniel Howard outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Picture: POLLY HANCOCK – Credit: Archant
Sir Ross Cranston, presiding over the case, ruled Westminster City Council was right in its legal challenge heard last week at the same court, and that Transport for London’s current plans for the route are unlawful.
It effectively sends TfL back to the drawing board to come up with fuller traffic modelling, and the prospect of consulting over a new scheme. A consultation on the original programme found 60% support across London – except in the areas that actually neighboured the route, where there was strong opposition.
TfL said this morning it was already considering appealing the decision.
The ruling, in a sparse courtroom at the High Court in the Strand, follows a judicial review hearing on Thursday last week at which the transport authority argued it had the “whip hand” over councils on strategic planning matters, stemming from laws passed in 1999 to set up the body and the mayor of London’s office.
Bicycle thief is jailed for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because victims forced to drive instead | Daily Mail Online (Feb 2020)
A bicycle thief has been jailed for three years for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because his victims would be forced to drive their cars instead.
A judge at Brussels Criminal Court heard the man in his 40s stole a cycle in October and has 17 previous convictions.
The judge said: ‘It is therefore advisable to severely punish the defendant who commits crimes the gravity of which is important for the planet, since the victim deprived of his bicycle has no other option than to use a more polluting means of transport.
Ecological crimes are usually restricted to actions that have a more direct impact on the environment, like polluting rivers or emitting greenhouse gases.
But campaigners are increasingly calling for the scope of such crimes to be greatly widened.
New campaign launched to encourage use of public transport in the UK – Global Railway Review
The Way Forward campaign is calling on the UK government to encourage the use of public transport in order to ensure a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A national campaign to help to get people back on board public transport in the UK has been launched by sustainable transport charity, Campaign for Better Transport.
The Way Forward campaign is calling on the UK government to support public transport by actively encouraging people to use buses, trains, coaches and trams as restrictions ease and introducing an incentive scheme to help to boost passenger numbers as part of a national plan to place public transport at the heart of a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive of CfBT said: “The events of the last year have made people less confident about using public transport, but, as restrictions continue to ease, we all need to start getting back on board. That’s why we’ve launched this campaign to urge the government to reassure people that public transport is safe again and to introduce a national scheme of discounted fares to encourage people to use it.
The sound of cities: noise pollution and why it matters – Centre for London (2019)
London is alive with the sounds of humanity. The rumble of the tube. The piercing ring of a siren. The drilling. The shouting. The honking. These are modern sounds created by a 21st century society, but noise pollution isn’t a modern trend.
According to Peter Ackroyd, a novelist and poet, 18th century London “rang with the hammers of artisans and the cries of tradesmen”, producing more noise than anywhere else in the country. Industrialised London was the noisiest city in the whole world, according to Walter Besant. Hogarth translated the maddening sounds of London onto canvas in his 1741 painting, which depicted an enraged musician despairing at the cacophony of sounds around him.
Although urban noise isn’t new, it hasn’t ever really been taken seriously as a public health issue that policy can help resolve. Have we underestimated the harm that noise has on our neighbourhoods, our health and our wellbeing?
Sound and health
There is increasing evidence that long-term exposure to noise pollution has negative effects on health. Cases of anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes have been shown to increase when noise levels do. According to the World Health Organisation, 1.6 million healthy life years are lost every year because of environmental noise, mainly due to the cortisol that it makes us release.
The wonder material we all need but is running out – BBC Future
In late 2019, the International Tripartite Rubber Council warned the global supply would fall short by one million tonnes (900,000 tons) in 2020, around 7% of production. Then the pandemic hit.
Demand reduced immediately, and driven miles – the key measure for ultimate demand for rubber – dropped as countries went into lockdown. But rubber soon bounced back. “Demand outpaced even the most bullish predictions,” says Meyer. As they came out of lockdown, Chinese citizens bought huge numbers of new cars, thanks to fears around the safety of public transport. Similar patterns are expected globally. “Demand has since eclipsed supply,” says Meyer. “Now there is an acute shortage (of rubber) in destinations, and inventory held by tyre makers is very low.”Although synthetic rubber can be produced from petrochemicals, natural rubber has unique properties which even these synthetics can’t match: natural latex gloves are more resistant to tear than nitrile ones, while aircraft tyres use natural rubber for its high elasticity and resistance to heat, which can build up from friction during landing.
And once the rubber shortage begins to bite and prices climb, farmers will be incentivised to clear tropical rainforest to plant more rubber. Although palm oil plantations have received far more attention, rubber plantations can be just as bad for biodiversity loss, according to Warren-Thomas.
![](https://camdencyclists.org.uk/wp-content/themes/dynamik-gen/images/content-filler.png)