I understand that there may be a problem in some cities with air quality, however it is unclear to me from this opinion piece how much of the problem comes from diesel cars per se. I believe Oxford Street has one of the worst air quality problems yet this street is off limits to private diesel cars - buses, taxis and service vehicles must be the mobile sources. No doubt fixed NOx sources like heating boilers contribute significantly too - the energy input to a large Oxford St retail store must be orders of magnitude greater than the modest amount of energy being expended by vehicles crawling past the door at low speed.
The French car fleet has traditionally been more like 70% diesel for decades, is there evidence of a sunstantially greater air pollution issue across La Manche ?
Diesel cars have substantially lower CO2 emissions - I average 58-60 mpg - which is one reason we were encouraged to go that way when climate change was the single issue du jour. An EU agreement to reduce CO2 emissions per km was a factor in manufacturers developing more diesel models. How are we to balance the climate change issue against localised concerns in cities ? Should a responsible high mileage driver running a diesel car be prevented from occasional incursions into the urban landscape ?
We should be wary of single issue campaigners and their biases and distortions. London's NOx levels have been stable for many years (despite the articles claimed massive increase in diesel vehicles) and furthermore the contribution of diesel passenger cars to NOx is said to be only 11% with 7% from petrol cars according to https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Driving%20Away%20from%20Di...
Competing interests:
I have driven diesel casrs since 1985
Rapid Response:
Re: Dirty diesel
I understand that there may be a problem in some cities with air quality, however it is unclear to me from this opinion piece how much of the problem comes from diesel cars per se. I believe Oxford Street has one of the worst air quality problems yet this street is off limits to private diesel cars - buses, taxis and service vehicles must be the mobile sources. No doubt fixed NOx sources like heating boilers contribute significantly too - the energy input to a large Oxford St retail store must be orders of magnitude greater than the modest amount of energy being expended by vehicles crawling past the door at low speed.
The French car fleet has traditionally been more like 70% diesel for decades, is there evidence of a sunstantially greater air pollution issue across La Manche ?
Diesel cars have substantially lower CO2 emissions - I average 58-60 mpg - which is one reason we were encouraged to go that way when climate change was the single issue du jour. An EU agreement to reduce CO2 emissions per km was a factor in manufacturers developing more diesel models. How are we to balance the climate change issue against localised concerns in cities ? Should a responsible high mileage driver running a diesel car be prevented from occasional incursions into the urban landscape ?
We should be wary of single issue campaigners and their biases and distortions. London's NOx levels have been stable for many years (despite the articles claimed massive increase in diesel vehicles) and furthermore the contribution of diesel passenger cars to NOx is said to be only 11% with 7% from petrol cars according to https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Driving%20Away%20from%20Di...
Competing interests: I have driven diesel casrs since 1985