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 by Staff Writers Frankfurt Am Main (AFP) May 23, 2018
Authorities in Hamburg said Wednesday they would ban some diesel vehicles from two major arteries to improve air quality, making the German port city the first to take the long-feared step. "Driving limits for older diesel vehicles can now come into force as planned" thanks to a decision by a top court, the city-state's government said in a statement. A 1,600-metre (one mile) section of the Stresemannstrasse highway in the Altona district will be closed to older diesel trucks from May 31. Meanwhile both diesel-powered trucks and cars that do not meet the latest Euro 6 emissions standards will be banned from a 580-metre stretch of another major and heavily polluted road, the Max-Brauer-Allee. Exemptions will be allowed for local residents and businesses as well as for delivery vehicles, ambulances and rubbish trucks. The late February decision by Germany's top administrative court that cities could ban older diesels from certain roads to cut pollution has set drivers on edge. Government officials have been scrambling for ways to improve air quality without imposing bans. They fear exclusion zones could disrupt citizens' lives and the economy as well as taking a massive bite out of the resale value of older diesels. "We have a very concrete set of measures with the clear aim of cleaning up the air without limiting mobility," such as subsidies for electric vehicles and hardware refits to older diesel bus fleets, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper Wednesday. While some 66 cities exceeded air pollution limits last year, Berlin aims to bring the number down "very quickly into the single digits," he said. But sales of diesel cars have already slumped, following years of scandal around millions of vehicles rigged by car giant Volkswagen to fool regulators' emissions checks -- with suspicion falling on other carmakers as well. So far the government has rejected the idea of forcing automakers to pay to refit older diesels to meet the latest emissions standards. It is "not in our interest to weaken the car industry with political measures so that it has no ability to invest in its own future," Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament last week. Germany's concern for its car industry finds short shrift in Brussels, where the European Commission said last week it was taking Germany and five other member nations to court over their failure to meet the bloc's air quality standards.
Copenhagen best, Rome worst for clean, safe roads: study "Safe roads and clean air go hand-in-hand," said Greenpeace Clean Air Campaigner Barbara Stoll. "This study shows that when you improve a city's public transport infrastructure in a sustainable way, people breathe cleaner air and their roads are safer." The report, carried out for Greenpeace by Germany's Wuppertal Institute, ranks 13 European capitals based on factors ranging from air quality to the affordability of public transport and the use of car-sharing services. Car-and scooter-mad Rome, where 65 percent of all journeys are carried out by privately-owned motor vehicles, was deemed the biggest sinner. Cheap parking and sub-par public transport discouraged drivers from abandoning their cars, the authors found, worsening the city's air pollution and making its traffic-clogged roads dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. The Eternal City was also the worst on road safety, the report said, giving the figures of 110 crashes for every 10,000 bicycle trips and 133 crashes for every 10,000 pedestrian trips. Rome was far from alone in breaching European Union air pollution limits, the report pointed out, and Budapest, Paris and Moscow all fared worse in the air quality ranking. The report comes just days after the European Commission announced it was taking six countries -- including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy -- to court for failing to tackle air pollution. "Many European cities struggle to provide reasonable air quality," the study said. "Reducing the share of internal combustion engines should be a priority," it added. The study's top three cities Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Oslo won plaudits for their high use of public transport, clearly marked and safe cycling and walking paths and cleaner than average air. Oslo was singled out for praise for closing its city centre to cars, and Copenhagen ranked first when it came to new mobility services like car-sharing and using smartphone apps to navigate public transport. Zurich meanwhile has the most affordable public transport, the study found, while London was commended for introducing the congestion charge and more recently the T-charge, which taxes older, more polluting vehicles. "Top-ranking cities kept in mind the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users while planning," the report said. "Cars do not dominate the design, but are just another user of the space." The authors said that if Rome wanted to improve its ranking, it should do more to separate cyclists from scooters, and follow the examples of other capitals by making inner-city driving more expensive.
Dealerships trash talk electric cars: study Paris (AFP) May 21, 2018 Car dealerships in Nordic countries actively discourage consumers from buying electric vehicles, researchers who conducted an undercover investigation said Monday. Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed Nature Energy, reveal an overlooked barrier to the sale of electric vehicles, which are expected to play a key role in lowering CO2 emissions and curbing global warming. Posing as prospective buyers, the researchers made 126 enquiries at 82 dealerships in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland ... read more
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