Op-ed 2, London's new Ultra Low Emission Zone

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On a previous blog post that I did, I wrote about the London Congestion Charge zone. From that blog post, I wrote how the Congestion charge was made, how it was implemented, and the overall effect it had on congestion relief within the London’s most congested area. Based on this research that I did, I have grown curious about the current state of the London C-charge. After doing some London news searching, I have discovered that the C-charge is adding on a new zone requirement for Londoners. They are calling this new zone the Ultra Low Emission Zone. The addition of ULEZ will become a part of the C-charge zone in April 8th of 2019 according to the Mayor of London website(2018). What makes the ULEZ stand out from the C-charge is that it’s 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year round active zone. To me, this posses a whole new set of challenges for London drivers.

            As I have said in my pervious blog post, the London C-charge was created to help solve central London’s congestion problem. The results of the C-charge were overall positive because it exceeded expectations on providing congestion relief. That was nearly 13 years ago. Now in the year of 2018, London has regressed back into a congestion problem even though the C-charge is still active. I must consider that if the C-charge was never applied back in 2003, the state of London’s congestion would probably be a whole lot worst. Now that news has broke out about the ULEZ, Londoners are surprised. From my outside perceptive, Londoner’s have all the reason to be surprised or shocked. The ULEZ seems to fill in the gaps of what the C-charge and what the toxicity charge has failed to do through the years. My perceptive on the ULEZ is that it is a radical plan to reduce London’s gas emissions by charging older vehicles and diesel engines that enter the same zone that the C-charge is in. Since ULEZ is active all year around, 24 hours a day, this makes ULEZ probably the most ambitious road pricing plan in a major city.

As I further inspect the Mayor of London information site about ULEZ, it becomes clear to me on where the mayor stands on public health. According to this site, the mayor’s ULEZ is to improve London’s air quality to help the overall health of London’s most vulnerable groups to toxic air quality like the elderly and children (2018). The site states that, “…every Londoner in the capital lives in an area exceeding World Health Organization guidelines for the most dangerous toxic particles”(2018). This makes ULEZ sound like a planned effort to improve London’s air quality which I’m sure it will but at what costs? According to the Evening Standard news article, ULEZ will charge £12.50 to vehicles that don’t meet the emissions standards for the ULEZ (Lydall, 2018). The emission standard for the ULEZ is that your vehicle must meet the minimum emission standard for petrol cars which is Euro 4 and for diesel cars Euro 6 (Matters, 2018). These emission standards are set up to reduce the amount of particle matter from entering the air like oxides of nitrogen and carbon. Divers will also be given a £160 fine if they fail to pay the £12.50 charge (Lydall, 2018). That’s just the charge for the ULEZ, add on the C-charge and some drivers could be looking at a payment of £24 just to enter the designated zone. The ULEZ also applies to Busses, taxis, and motorcycles. The future of the ULEZ has also been planned out. If all goes well for ULEZ, it will expand its boundary to the North and South Circular Roads (Matters, 2018). 

            What I find to be most interesting about the ULEZ announcement is that it doesn’t sound as a racial idea when comparing to Paris’s new gas tax which now suspended due to the Yellow Vest protest movement. Instead of creating a road charging zone like London is with the ULEZ, Paris created an overall tax on gas. That tax would charge residents of Paris about 25 cents a gallon (Adam, 2018). This tax of course created a huge movement of protesting and rallying amongst the people of Paris which later became the Yellow Vest movement. I think the people of Paris are concerned with the environmental damages that gasoline emissions do but this gasoline tax was clearly not the answer in reducing Paris’s particle matter emissions.
             Seeing how some cities address their congestions issues by aligning it with public health and environmental issues, has make easy for me to understand that transportation systems plays a huge part on a city. The impact of transportation change and planning affects all aspects of a city, including the people that inhabit them. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the ULEZ too see how Londoner’s transition into a new pricing zone. Maybe an American city can follow it. 

References

“The Mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone for London.” 2018. London City Hall. November 29, 2018. https://www.london.gov.uk//what-we-do/environment/pollution-and-air-quality/mayors-ultra-low-emission-zone-london.

Lydall, Ross.“Revealed: Full Details of ULEZ £12.50-a-Day Charge for London Drivers.” 2018. Evening Standard. November 27, 2018. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/revealed-full-details-of-ulez-1250aday-charge-for-london-drivers-a4001156.html.

Matters, Transport for London | Every Journey. n.d. “Cars.” Transport for London. Accessed December 5, 2018. https://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/cars.

Nossiter, Adam. 2018. “France Suspends Fuel Tax Increase That Spurred Violent Protests.” The New York Times, December 5, 2018, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/world/europe/france-fuel-tax-yellow-vests.html.


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