Cities around the world are stepping up their efforts to combat climate change by introducing a range of measures to reduce the harmful gasses being released into the air. While climate change is a critical issue, for people living in city centres they also have to deal with air quality and how this impacts their daily lives and long-term health.
One of the most widely reported on emission zones has been the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London which came into existence last year. According to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the ULEZ is a part of the plan to make London a zero-carbon city by 2030.
Today we are going to look at how emission zones, like London’s ULEZ, work, what the impact on emissions has been, and how drivers have been able to adapt to the new rules in place.
How do emission zones work?
It is worth saying that emission zones are not an entirely new idea. Congestion charging has actually been in place in cities across Europe since the early 2000s after first being implemented in Singapore in 1975. The basic concept of emission zones is to limit the number of vehicles which are classed as high polluting within a specific area. The way this works is by charging anyone whose vehicle does not meet the emissions standards in place.
London is an interesting example of a city with several different regulations in place. Not only do they have the Congestion Charge, but they also have the Low Emission Zone (LEZ), and the ULEZ mentioned above. The LEZ imposes emissions regulations on commercial vehicles such as lorries and vans, along with some 4×4 and pickup vehicles, and operates 24 hours a day on every day of the year other than Christmas Day.
However, the ULEZ, which covers a smaller area in central London, has different charging regulations. Unlike the LEZ, which only impacts larger commercial vehicles, the ULEZ affects all vehicle types. If cars, motorcycles and some vans do not meet the Euro emissions regulations, they have to pay £12.50 each day to enter the ULEZ. For heavier vehicles such as lorries and buses, they need to pay £100 each day to enter if they do not meet the emissions regulations. Furthermore, the ULEZ is expanding to create one larger zone with one set of regulations as of October 2021.
The regulations require petrol cars to meet Euro 4 standards, along with vans, minibuses and other specialist vehicles and Euro 6 for the diesel equivalents. For motorbikes, mopeds, motorised tricycles and quadricycles they need to meet Euro 3 standards on emissions, and for specialist heavy vehicles such as lorries, they need to meet Euro VI standards.
What has the impact on emissions been?
As different cities have different regulations and different starting levels of pollution, comparing results is difficult. What we can do however is analyse results which have been published and reports which show estimates for results in the years to come.
We can look at London and the ULEZ to see the short-term impact of emission regulations. In a report released by the Mayor of London’s office in April 2020, the effect of the ULEZ is clear. When compared to February 2017, the concentration levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) at roadside sites inside the ULEZ in February 2020 have reduced by 44%. This is vital as NO2 is known to have an impact on human health, particularly impacting respiratory health. The report also states that CO2 levels are estimated to have fallen by 6% compared to a scenario where there was no ULEZ. This is a reduction in 12,300 tonnes of CO2.
If we look at Paris, a city with its own emission regulations, a study from March 2020 estimated the effects of its regulations on air quality for the years to come. The study shows that with the implementation of more stringent entrance requirements into Paris’ LEZ, the city could see a reduction in Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) of between 76-87% in 2024 when compared to 2016 levels.
It is also worth saying that both of these reports came out before the COVID-19 pandemic had placed both London and Paris into lockdown. The impacts of the lockdown will not be known until later reports are published, but around the world, there were viable signs of improvements in air quality thanks to fewer cars on city streets. However, London did temporarily suspend the Congestion Charge, LEZ and ULEZ during the pandemic to help key workers travel as easily as possible.
How have drivers been able to adapt?
Everyone from residents to businesses have needed to adapt to the new emission regulations. There was some concern from businesses before the introduction of London’s ULEZ as to the impact it would have on their ability to go about their work.
The scrappage scheme, which was set up to allow businesses to apply for money to buy a vehicle which complies with emission regulations and scrap their old vehicle, has been altered. Following a low uptake in the scheme, the amount of money available to businesses with fewer than ten employees has doubled from £3,500 to £7,000 to buy a compliant Euro 6 vehicle. Alternatively, they can apply for £6,000 to buy a new electric vehicle, or £9,500 for an electric van. The scheme has also been extended to businesses with up to 50 employees.
According to Christina Calderato, Transport for London’s Head of Transport Strategy and Planning, TfL understands that “vans and heavy vehicles play a major part in the capital’s economy and are intrinsic to both logistics and leisure.”
When it comes to logistics, there are also ways businesses can adapt by using technology. Business vehicle tracking allows businesses operating commercial vehicles to see the location history of their vehicles. They can also see the live location of all the vehicles in their fleet. When adapting to emission zones, this can be very useful for several reasons. It allows businesses to understand better how many of their vehicles are entering a zone each day. If the entire fleet is made up of vehicles which do not comply with emissions regulations, then changes can be made to driving routes to reduce the number of vehicles entering a zone and therefore reduce entry cost. Furthermore, by seeing the live location of each company vehicle, a field service provider could plan to have only a few vehicles within a zone for the day and assign jobs within the zone to the nearest available vehicle already inside. However, if a job was absolutely urgent, the closest vehicle outside the zone could still be located and sent in quickly.
For companies outside of London who may operate inside, but are based outside, the area which the ULEZ will expand to, fitting vehicle tracking technology before this expansion will allow them to understand better the costs of entering the zone for their fleet without making any changes. By doing this, they will be able to analyse the pros and cons of investing in compliant vehicles or changing the way their vehicles interact with clients inside the zone.
Overall, there is no indication based on the results, planned expansion and the investment into scrappage schemes that London’s ULEZ is going anywhere any time soon. Similarly, with cities around the world becoming more aware of the problems of pollution and air quality, it would not be surprising to see more emission zones set up in other major cities. When looking at the impact of these zones, long-term results will be the real test of their success. Combining them with a shift in transportation away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles towards electric and potentially hydrogen could well see our city centres experience a significant improvement in air quality.
