Parking fees linked to emissions

The Alliance Against Urban 4x4s welcomes the decision by Richmond Council's proposal for emissions-led parking rates.
Under the plan, the cost of residents' parking permits would be linked to the emissions their car produces. Additionally, a family's second car will be charged at a 50% higher rate.
We're in favour of the scheme, and will be campaigning for more London councils, as well as other cities, to follow suit. In general, most local councils around London are in favor of this scheme.
Why? Most 4x4's are a socially unacceptable car choice in the cities. Parking schemes like the one Richmond Council has proposed will give real incentives for people to make the choice for lighter cars that enhance the air quality as well as safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and strong disincentives for people exerting 'their right' to buy the heavier, dirtier and more dangerous cars.

Manchester Alliance goes to School

Early on 16th October campaigners protested outside Hale Preparatory School in Manchester. The school is rather notorious for the excessive numbers of parents who drop off their children in 4x4s.

According to Graham, who put the school run event together, "the morning was organised around campaigners dressed as school masters in classic robes and mortar boards handing out school reports giving bad grades for 'poor vehicle choice'. Other campaigners were dressed as lollipop ladies carrying 'Stop 4x4' lollipops.

The day was a great success. We had support from parents who had come to school by walking and from locals who live on the road and are tired off the 4x4s that plow along there in morning. Although there were a few 4x4 drivers who didn’t appreciate the message we were successful in engaging with most drivers and several said they would reconsider their vehicle choice.

We had a lot of media attention from BBC Radio and Northwest tonight, Channel M, the Manchester Evening News and an ITV crew filming a documentary on the subject. This resulted in us getting our message out to a wider audience and it has been quite a successful day."

Stay tuned for more from Manchester. We expect a Manchester 'mock parking ticket' to be released soon.

Launch of new Hampshire Alliance

Saturday saw the launch of the new Hampshire Alliance Against Urban 4x4s on the grounds at Winchester Cathedral. Over 30 representatives from 15 local groups attended in spite of the heavy rains. 130 4x4s were 'ticketed' around the town centre. There was a very good media response, with several pre-records being played throughout the day, as well as a phone-in session on BBC Solent with Peter White.

Organiser Darren Shirley had this to say: "The Hampshire Alliance has been a long time coming. The inexplicable growth in 4x4 ownership across Hampshire has been evident for a while and the groups who formed the coalition have been working individually to tackle the rising level of local carbon emissions and other pollutants caused by vehicle emissions. It seemed sensible to combine our efforts and work together to stop big 4x4 (along with other gas guzzling cars) from choking our children and killing our planet. We don't want Winchester and the other towns and cities of Hampshire to end up like Chelsea! 4x4 sales are dropping and we aim to ensure this trend is continued across Hampshire and appropriate measures are brought in locally to curb the influx of 4x4s into the counties cities." Future events are already planned.

It's time to regulate the Auto Industry

Clearly it's time for the EU to regulate the automobile industry. The voluntary targets that the manufacturers set for themselves in 1989, to reduce their overall European fleet emmissions to 140gm CO2 / km by 2008, will not be met. Not by a longshot. So much for handshakes.

Instead, most car manufacturers have driven up sales of large 4x4s, which are cheaper to produce and allow a higher profit margin. Unfortunately most 4x4 models also emit higher levels of CO2 and NO2 than typical family sedans.

This summer, Ford UK was falling over itself with an anouncement that it would be devoting millions of pounds into researching technologies to reduce CO2 emmissions. However, that research may be looking in the wrong place. Using alternative 'bio-fuels' will not be a real solution, as the source of local biofuel would not be sustainable. The manufacturing of bio-fuels is dependent on harvesting large 'mono-crops' and encouraging corporate-run agribusiness just when we need our farmers to increase their localised production of diverse food crops to decrease food miles and provide food security.

More importantly, the rush for bio-fuel technologies does not increase the overall efficiency of the outdated combustion engine design, which is at best 20% efficient. Electric cars that run on batteries are about 90% - 95% efficient.

What we need is new innovative designers to think outside the box. Ideas such as the new all-electric Tesla sports car (that accelerates 0-60 in 4 seconds) are a step in the right direction. We also need new transport plans for cities that decrease our dependency on motorised transport. We can look to Portland, Oregon in the US for example.

It's time for getting down to real innovation. And accepting responsibility for the future, which depends on all of us.

Are 4x4 drivers Public Enemy Number 1?

 
A report released in the Independent by the British Medical Journal concludes that the drivers of 4x4s are 4 times more likely to be using their mobile phone while driving, and more likely to be driving without a seatbelt. Read the full report here.