Should diesel vehicles be banned from the city centre?

[Kidorry]

Forgive my ignorance but I thought catalytic converters were supposed to have solved the problem of pollutants.

[Eater Sundae]

Not flip flopping on policy to the detriment of the populace is something that people want from government though.

So whilst people have diesels that they bought because the government encouraged it, they shouldn't then be penalised because the government got it wrong.

Tax new diesels more highly, and reduce the number around, don't exclude those with diesels from part of the road network that they pay tax towards.

 

I agree. These types of changes shouldn't be retrospective

[rudds1]

Forgive my ignorance but I thought catalytic converters were supposed to have solved the problem of pollutants.

 

And what about dpf,s were they not supposed to help although not fitted to every diesel car ??

[Puggie]

The French offered diesel owners upto 10,000 Euros to swap them out for something cleaner. Maybe we'll follow suit?

[silentP]

The French offered diesel owners upto 10,000 Euros to swap them out for something cleaner. Maybe we'll follow suit?

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's already a consideration. It would be nice.

[Eater Sundae]

And what about dpf,s were they not supposed to help although not fitted to every diesel car ??

 

They started to be introduced on diesel vehicles to meet ever more stringent emission standards, moving from EURO 1 through to EURO 6. The standards for diesels has always included both Particulate Matter (PM) and the various oxides of Nitrogen (NOx). It is only recently that petrol vehicles are being required (on the newer designs) to meet a PM standard, presumably because they have never been as bad as diesels, so has not been felt to be necessary.

 

In the case of NOx, the standard for petrol engines has always been more stringent than for diesels, which I assume to be because the motoring lobby has fought against diesels being brought into line quickly due to the cost of the technology to achieve a quick change.

 

The result is that diesel is always lagging behind in terms of PM and NOx, but ahead in CO2.

 

So the more diesels we have, then the worse is our environment in terms of PM and NOx.

 

Of course, if manufacturers also fiddle their test results, we will be even worse off than we expected we would have been.

 

---------- Post added 14-04-2017 at 11:13 ----------

 

The French offered diesel owners upto 10,000 Euros to swap them out for something cleaner. Maybe we'll follow suit?

 

I think there are some nifty little petrol turbo engines already in the Renault and PSA ranges of cars, set ready to profit from any scrappage scheme.

[geared]

As did Volkswagen. (and others I suspect)

 

Lets face it...

 

People will always purchase a vehicle based upon THEIR needs, NOT based on the good of the planet or any other criteria.

 

That's life in a nutshell.

 

Volkswagen released some cracking diesel engines right around that time as well, no doubt government policy helped sales.

[Puggie]

Very interesting article about the economic damage being caused by free parking:

 

Parking can seem like the most humdrum concern in the world. Even planners, who thrill to things like zoning and floor-area ratios, find it unglamorous. But parking influences the way cities look, and how people travel around them, more powerfully than almost anything else. Many cities try to make themselves more appealing by building cycle paths and tram lines or by erecting swaggering buildings by famous architects. If they do not also change their parking policies, such efforts amount to little more than window-dressing.

 

Free parking is not, of course, really free. The costs of building the car parks, as well as cleaning, lighting, repairing and securing them, are passed on to the people who use the buildings to which they are attached. Restaurant meals and cinema tickets are more pricey; flats are more expensive; office workers are presumably paid less. Everybody pays, whether or not they drive. And that has an unfortunate distributional effect, because young people drive a little less than the middle-aged and the poor drive less than the rich.

 

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21720269-dont-let-people-park-free-how-not-create-traffic-jams-pollution-and-urban-sprawl

[geared]

Forgive my ignorance but I thought catalytic converters were supposed to have solved the problem of pollutants.

 

They mainly reduce CO2 emissions, but don't do a whole lot for NOx or particulate emissions which it turns out are both pretty bad for peoples health.

DPF's and SCR systems combat those emissions, but not all vehicles run them.

 

Another issue with diesels is there is no actual proper test of emissions come MOT time, the test is still the same for a vehicle today as it was 30 years ago.

 

You can take all the emissions control systems off the vehicle and still pass diesel emissions test without issue.

[Clai]

It's just another tax that will be forced upon people. Shame they are now back tracking that diesel vehicles were they way to go. Just another burden on the self employed who have diesel vans for their work