Climate change is one of the major environmental threats faced by the earth for many years. These could cause by many different activities practiced by human such as deforestation, combustion of fossil fuels and dumping chemical into the water. However, there is another major factor that could harm the environment which is usually been neglected by people. In cities, overloaded of transportation could be one of the most significant reasons causing various environmental issues. Heavy traffic not only affects people mentally but also physically. This issues had come to an extend where it affects human’s health and well-being significantly. The public have no choice but to raise their awareness on this issue.
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The evolution of transport in London started decades ago. TfL (2010) stated that in year 1933, when London’s public transport was united by the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), bus services had leading area coverage compare to other public transport. This clearly showed that buses were widely used at that time. However, due to the various developments in London’s public transport such as London Underground, London Tramlink, London Rail and taxis, certain public transport had become equally essential to citizens in London. For example, TfL (2010) stated that London Underground today, made 3 million passenger journeys every day linking 275 stations. It is always good to see such changes in London’s transport which directly explained the advancement of the city in the past decades. Nevertheless, these had also increased the negatives effect on environment cause by transport.
According to Banister and Burton (2003), previously, people were only concerns about loud noises caused by transport and the never-ending in expanding the landscape for heavy traffic. Their concerns had now expanded into environmental issues such as global warming and ozone layer depletion which has gain awareness from all related organisations. The UK government had realized the seriousness of this issue and had introduced several solutions trying to reduce the traffic going into London or encourage people to use public transport, preferably walk and cycle. This report will include various main issues for this topic such as the negative effect caused by the road traffic in London and what had been done by UK government in order to minimize the impact of road traffic to the environment.
Vehicle pollutants play a dominant role in causing the increase of air pollutions day by day. Pierce (1992) stated that the transportation produce most of the poisonous gas existing in the world’s air. Although people are aware of this environment issue, this does not prevent them from driving their private vehicles into London. The Lancet (2009) warned that the gas emissions from transport are still rising each year and had estimated that there will be an 80% increase on bad gas emission from the year 2007 to 2030.
According to European Conference of Ministers of Transport (2001), these vehicle pollutants consist of hazardous gas such as particulate matter (PM), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NO), Lead, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Those hazardous gas released brings health problems to people from all ages which has caused relevant organisations such as government, environmentalist and health related organisations to have look into this issue seriously. A review by Krzyzanowski, Dibbert and Schneider (2005) stating that hazardous air produce by transport could increased the chances of getting asthma for children and brought death due to the malfunction of our cardio for adults.
Transport not only caused air pollutions, it can also lead to serious noise pollutions in London. In urban cities such as London, transport is the major sources for noise pollution. Hensher and Button (2003) pointed out that one could get affected by noise pollution directly from transport and also through vibration caused by heavy vehicles and trains. Sperling (2004) stated that noise produced by transport not only brings severe annoyance but also affect human’s health. A study in UK and Germany by Schade (2003) report that an exposure to transport noise above 70 dB(A) levels will increase the risk of getting myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) by 30% compare to those above 65dB(A).
The productivity of people at work and daily life will be greatly affected by constant exposure to transport noise. People who live by the highways or railways, cannot sleep well during the night. People without a good rest at home cannot focus well while undertaking various activities in their daily life. As a result, many problems such as mistakes at work and traffic accidents will arise due to the ineffectiveness of human.
Although these transportations contribute to various pollutions, climate change is believed to be one of the major negative effects cause by transports pollutant. Hardy (2003) clarified that nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxides and ozone influenced the climate the most. These gases are specified as greenhouse gases where it will affect the temperature of the earth. Gliiespie (2005) stated that the change of the “atmosphere thermal structure” immediately relates to global warming. This could lead to the destruction of the ozone layer where it increased human’s exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B). A long-term exposure to UV-B will have an effect on human’s health by having certain infectious diseases, skin cancer and eyes problems (Goettsch, 1994).
A research carried out under London Climate Change Partnership 04/05 reported the influenced caused by transport in London. Arkell and Darch (2006) explained that different scenarios happened because of climate change. London will encounter warm winters, hot and dry summer, more rainfalls, rise of sea level and flooding in low area. In year 2050s, London’s average temperature is estimated to increase for at least 1 Celsius (Arkell and Darch, 2006). These are all caused by the constant released of hazardous gas by transport in London where 66% of particulate matter and 42% of nitrogen oxides are from road transport (Mayor of London, 2009).
In spite of this, it is not impossible for the public to work together in order to prevent transport pollutions get into an even more severe stage. There are few methods that had been brought out by the UK government in order to change the current situation caused by transport pollutants in London. One could tell the biggest difference in air pollutions after this had been carried out is the introduction of congestion charge in central London.
Beevers and Carslaw(2004) reports that after the introduction of London congestion charging scheme (CCS) in February 2003, it has noticeably reduced the traffic going into London. The changes of vehicle numbers have a direct impact with the gas emission levels in London. Transport pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter are believed to have reduced at a percentage of about 12% each (Litman, 2004).This could be said as a substantial decrease to London. People had
begun to take public transport more often or even cycle to work after the charge. This had tremendously affected the environmental conditions.
Apart from those above, the public has to pay environmental taxes for owning a vehicle. Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) (2009) stated that vehicle’s owner not only has to pay fuel tax, they have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) which is paid annually depending on the type of vehicle you own. Apparently, more polluting cars will have to pay more whereas less polluting cars will have a chance to be exempted. In order to differentiate the levels of polluting cars is by measuring the emissions of carbon dioxide from each car.
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Other than that, the increase of parking fee in London will cause vehicle owners to think twice before driving into London. In certain areas of London, parking fee was charged according to the emission of carbon dioxide by the vehicle. UK government had also tried to provide fewer parking spaces in London so that drivers will get frustrated while looking for a parking and choose to take public transport where they will not have to face all these problems. (Transport Committee et al., 2009)
Greater London Authority (2002) stated that “The Mayor’s Transport Strategy and Transport for London’s (TfL’s) Business Plan” consists of a range of steps needed to be considered in the future. Public transport such as bus system has to be improved intensively by reducing the travel time, increase the regularity of buses, introduce more bus route and using low-emission carbon dioxide buses. It is crucial to improve the conditions of the cyclists and pedestrians as well to ensure that their safety can be insured. Other than bus services, UK government are always improving the London Underground services from time to time in order to provide a better services to the public (Sodhi and Norris, 2004).
The implementation of crossrail is said to be beneficial to the public in London. There will be an addition rail access in London which helps to reduce private vehicle getting into London. It gives the public extra choices on public transport and crossrail might cover areas that had not been well-covered by existing public transport. Introduction of a new public transport, crossrail, also helps to achieve the goal of the government in sustaining the environment. (Great Britain: Department of Transport, 2007) Moreover, standard of public transport should be maintained at a high level to attract people using continuously. Banister (2005) emphasizes that there should be a limitation of mobility in certain areas of a city. Non-polluting transport such as electric vehicles that use renewable energy sources will only be allowed in that particular zone whereas the others will be outside that area.
The launching of London Oyster Card in August 2003 does help in encouraging the public to take public transport more. Oyster card is a new way of ticketing which is called the smart-card ticketing (Blythe, 2004). It is easy to be use, time saving and most importantly it is faster than any other paper ticketing (Winters, n.d.). The public will not find any problems travelling by oyster card instead they will think it save them a great deal of time and their desire in wanting to take the public transport obviously will be higher.
Hence, several ways and campaign had been introduced by UK government in order to reduce this issue. Woodcock, et al (2009) also notified that it is better to reduce the usage of transport compare to increase using of lower-emission transport; however, it will have a better effect if both are to be practiced together at the same time. According to the Department of Transport (n.d.), the UK government is setting-up a long-term planning for the transportation in London. The UK government is trying to promote various campaigns such as encouraging people to walk and cycle more, share vehicles, travel using public transport, improve current situation on road traffic and manage the network in a better way. UK government not only wish to benefits economically but also environmentally.
Furthermore, the introduction of Barclays Cycle Hire scheme had become increasingly famous in London. Barclays Cycle Hire scheme is said to be the newest pollution free public transport in London which was stated in the website Mayor of London (2010). It operates 24 hours every day which was located more than hundreds of places in London. Cycling is not only a good exercise which could lead the public to a healthier life but to a better living environment. In England, their aim is to build better and safer cyclists’ paths to encourage the citizens to treat cycling as their daily transport (Bhopal, 1995).
In addition, electric vehicles (EV) which were introduced to the society few years ago had draw attentions from the public in London. The vision of the Mayor regarding Electric Vehicles Delivery Plan is to boost up the usage of EV and build more charge points (Source London, 2010). Electric vehicles run by electric motors are a replacement for petrol and diesel. Mayor of London (2009) shows that EV’s owner will be 100% free from congestion charges, discounted rate in parking and privilege of using the bus lanes at certain hours. A research shows that by replacing 100,000 of fuel powered vehicles, Nitrogen oxides could be reduced by 350-400 tonnes per year (Mayor of London, 2009).
Lastly but not least, London Hydrogen Partnership was introduced by former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone (Wagner, 2010). This campaign is to encourage the use of hydrogen in vehicles. It is slightly difficult for public transport like buses and taxis which usually operate long hours per day, to power by electric, but it is possible to use hydrogen. Hydrogen is a fuel that does not bring much noise and release less greenhouse gases to the environment (London Hydrogen Partnership, 2010). By using hydrogen in vehicles fully support the aims in sustaining a clean and green environment.
In conclusion, due to the irresponsible of human’s daily activities and lack of awareness of the current situation caused by over-loading transports, the Earth is getting much more polluted compare to past decades. Unfortunately, some people think that by travelling in their own cars could represent their status in the society or increase their quality of life (Banister, 1997). The public are concerns about the environment by always recycle what they had used at home but they always forget that transport brings a greater impact to the environment. This action could be clearly seen in the process of buying a new vehicle. Fuel consumption of a vehicle is usually the last few points a buyer will consider or it might totally be neglected throughout the whole buying process (Department for Transport, n.d.).
It cannot be denied that travelling by own vehicle is always more comfortable than public transport as one do not have to cram with others in a limited place. However, people should consider the long term effects and their future generations. One could enjoy the way they are living now but no one can guarantee what is going to happen the next day. Therefore, citizens should aware of this the environmental issues caused by transport in London. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep the earth a safe and healthy place to live in. Thus, everyone should work together before it comes to a severe stage where no one can do anything to change it. Citizens should work closely with the government in order to build a good living environment. It does not matter if one does it just for themselves or for the society as long as it could help to improve the current situation of the environment.
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