Air quality in Brixton and Brixton Road

Discussion in 'Brixton' started by Bob, May 16, 2008.

  1. Pickman's model

    Pickman's model every man and every woman is a star

    i would have thought the councillors would have a vested interest in this being dealt with being as lambeth town hall's bound to have a rather polluted atmosphere even before you introduce exhaust fumes.
    Greebo likes this.
  2. SWB

    SWB Banned Banned

    That would be the ultimate solution of course but I wouldn't hold your breath( even on Brixton road)

    It would make a tram system look like a cheap and easy solution! !
    Greebo likes this.
  3. Crispy

    Crispy The following psytrance is baṉned: All

    During the planning stages, the Southern terminus wandered all over the place - Wimbledon and Croydon were once considered. But the budget was cut and South London was deemed less worthy (surprise surprise).

    You couldn't do it now. Despite all those bus loads coming down the hill, there are plenty of people in Stretham who catch trains or take the bus all the way to work. If the Victoria line was extended that way, it would have to carry not only the existing busloads, but also the people who'd switch from trains and buses. It's pretty much at capacity already and it just couldn't cope with the extra passengers.

    The Charing X branch of the Northern line would have been a better contender for extension down the A23, but that's going to Battersea instead, thanks to the developer ££££ available to build it.
    Greebo and leanderman like this.
  4. SWB

    SWB Banned Banned

    Aparently it is on the cards for 2030. And that is a long time to hold your breath :D

    Click on the arrow from Brixton, and then more
    Greebo likes this.
  5. Paulie

    Paulie Well-Known Member

    As a non-driver and non-parent, there's great chunks of this debate I'm really not getting. Maybe I'm just dim.

    Why are children driven to school instead of walking? Pollution levels? I walked 2-3 miles to school in South London from age 8 (and it didn't me any harm etc...) I understand the age to get to primary school unaccompanied is far higher than my era so parents would now have to squeeze that in before work - but do they then drive to work?

    The Dulwich College buses - just how far are they picking up pupils from? Buses are preferable to a load of private cars but a walk from, say, Hillside Road to the school is OK isn't it?

    Why is any idea of less cars, less driving oppressive to anyone - lower income or not? Isn't that what we need?

    The Walworth Road in the 70s and 80s was one long traffic jam but is now much thinner in traffic. What changed that traffic pattern? (was much improved before CC so not that)

    Answers couched for my simple mind for any of the above gratefully received.
    moon likes this.
  6. leanderman

    leanderman Street Party: July 2

    I guess people drive to school for safety, time and laziness reasons.

    I agree less driving is good. Full stop.
  7. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    I'd imagine that those parents who drive their kids to work then drive home again. I like most to walk my daughter to school, she is on the scooter. We get a real good chat about what she has planned for the day ahead, maybe sing a few songs if she is not grumpy. Time like that is hard to beat. If the weather is bad we'll use the bus. But I then head in to town. If I were going home, I'd probably drive it.
    Greebo and editor like this.
  8. leanderman

    leanderman Street Party: July 2

    Not under my pay-per-mile in-car toll scheme you wouldn't!
  9. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    We already have such a scheme, it's called duty on road fuel.
  10. moon

    moon Happy Happy Jo Wonderland

    Totally selfish and lazy car drivers putting everyone's health at risk!
  11. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    There are people with flash cars with loud stereos and they just go round and round in them. I've seen it on particularly long waits for the N2, they circle Brixton Road, Coldharbour Lane and then come back up from that direction again. Three times in ten minutes. Range Rovers, BMWs, Mercs. At least lazy parents on the school run are actually going somewhere.
    Greebo likes this.
  12. moon

    moon Happy Happy Jo Wonderland

    The type of car and entertainment choice is irrelevant. I think they would also claim they were going somewhere, even if it was round in circles..
  13. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    They're just cruising. It's a form of entertainment. Get a really good car with a bassy bassy stereo. Then head round town in that for the night. Their journey probably stops and starts in the same place, their house, stopping only to pick up their mates who cruise with them. I'm quite envious.
  14. Winot

    Winot I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint

    I really don't think many children are.
    leanderman likes this.
  15. moon

    moon Happy Happy Jo Wonderland

    I'm sure you can strap a mini sound system onto a pimped retro bicycle and cruise on that..
    In fact I've seen loads of people doing that already..
    Greebo likes this.
  16. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    That's true. Maybe I just notice the Beemers and the Range Rovers but they're more likely to be driving round in their ma's Fiesta which goes under my radar.
  17. Twattor

    Twattor Well-Known Member

    Don't conflate the issue. A lot of (young) people living at home lease unnecessarily prestigious motors because the availabilty of credit makes it possible and because the wish for status makes it desirable.
  18. moon

    moon Happy Happy Jo Wonderland

    Oh god this thread has also gone to rat shit..
  19. leanderman

    leanderman Street Party: July 2

    Despite the so-called 'war on the motorist', there's plenty of evidence that driving is pretty cheap, especially when you consider rail fares.

    Do motoring taxes exceed the costs of the road network and associated externalities such as pollution?
  20. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    I don't know what conflate means.

    I was only saying that while driving kids to a nearby school is bad, driving round with no destination is worse.
  21. Smick

    Smick Strictly Second Class

    I have no idea. But there is a direct charge with increases with usage.
  22. Twattor

    Twattor Well-Known Member

    Kids have got to have a hobby... Has got to be better than drugs and guns.
  23. ViolentPanda

    ViolentPanda Hardly getting over it.

    What if they're driving round in their bass-mobiles selling drugs and toting guns? :)
    Greebo likes this.
  24. fredfelt

    fredfelt Mostly unknown member

    I don't think that there's any measure that you could use to objectively claim that there is a 'war on the motorist' - except to count the newspaper headlines containing the phrase, or indeed politicians using the phrase to get admiration from 'hard working families' by declaring that they feel the pain of the motorist.

    Take this example, from The Mirror "Labour yesterday vowed to stop demonising motorists and start championing them as it declared its war on drivers was over."

    In regard to costs and taxes raised from the road network it really depends on how you measure it and who you ask. However I don't think cost benefit analysis' of this nature are very helpful. You can't really put a value on quality of life. You can associate a cost to a life lost through an road traffic accident, a cost of obesity through lack of exercise, costs of traffic jams, the rational is that when you know the cost of something there's a justification to address those costs by investing to resolve the immediate problem

    Once you start doing cost benefit analysis you are already committed to a certain point of view. That is one of economic efficiency (ie it's worth making this junction safer at x cost as y amount of people have died at it. Or you can justify an extra lane on a road by pricing the opportunity cost of people sitting in a traffic jam).

    What missing about such economic analysis is any kind of vision of what kind of society we want to build. Do we want to continue to invest in, and propagate a car dependant society, is the supposed freedom to be able to drive with minimal personal cost worth having at the expense of stopping children going outside at break times as the playground is too polluted, should our streets automatically be planned to allow maximum flow of cars at the expense of anyone else who's not sitting in a car.

    My understanding in that planners plan for more cars being driven more often. The nihilist neo-liberal mind sent directs public money to accommodate the demand. They don't plan for less polluted streets, nor do they plan for cycling, walking, or even public transport displacing the demands of the motorist. They plan for more cars, and we get more cars.
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2015
    Belushi, leanderman and Greebo like this.
  25. leanderman

    leanderman Street Party: July 2

    Agreed: I think you said what I said.
  26. T & P


    Bump. In this BBC article you can search your postcode for pollution levels. I've just done a search for the postcode of the Iceland supermarket in Brixton, and they claim the pollution in that area is 'average'... :hmm:

    Pollution hotspots revealed
  27. editor

    editor hiraethified

  28. editor

    editor hiraethified

  29. metalguru

    metalguru guilty bystander

    Is there an app or website that gives good quality easy-to-understand localised air quality information? I feel from the tightness in my chest that it must have been poor quality air day in London today.

    I was walking earlier alongside the Cromwell Road's mega-monstrous section by West Kensington/Earls Court/Gloucester Ave and could feel the 'roughness' of the air in my throat.
  30. editor

    editor hiraethified

    London Air (@LondonAir) on Twitter

    London Air Quality Network :: Welcome to the London Air Quality Network » Statistics Maps

    But. alas

    Brixton air pollution monitor is switched off again
    metalguru likes this.

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