The car-loving city of
Birmingham (in the running
to host the ITS World Congress
2024) is set to introduce the
UK’s first emissions-based
private-car restrictions outside
London. Adam Frost reports on
how it will be enforced and
CAZ
Just be Following the delay to the
may also be used. If only vehicle
launch of Leeds City Council’s
clean air zone (CAZ) that was
due to start on 6th January, it
now looks as if Birmingham will
become the first UK city outside
London to introduce a pollutionbusting
scheme when the system
goes live this summer.
When a clean air zone is officially
designated in the UK, the local
authority must restrict entry of the
most polluting vehicles into the zone,
but has some degree of flexibility on
the level of restriction and other
methods of reducing air pollution
what lessons have
already been learned
Illustration Sean Rodwell
restriction is used, at a specified
level, then the area is more accurately
referred to as a low-emission zone
(LEZ). In Birmingham, from 1st July
2020, owners of the most polluting
vehicles will have to pay to drive into
the centre and by the end of the year
many other towns and cities across
the UK will be following suit, thereby
helping to reduce illegal levels of
toxic NO2 and particulate matter.
Five cities have been mandated
by the UK Government to introduce
a CAZ: Birmingham, Nottingham,
Derby, Leeds and Southampton. The
Clean Air Zones |
026 Traffic Technology International March/April 2020
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