Bath Preservation Trust has come out in support of the proposal by B&NES to introduce a Clean Air Zone in Bath (CAZ) – particularly because its boundaries take into account the through traffic crossing Cleveland Bridge and exiting the City along the London Road.
In a press statement – released today, Tuesday. April 10th – BPT say:
‘We support the highest category of restriction (category D) in order to encourage behavioural change for car users as well as commercial vehicles.
Bath traffic results in three problems which can damage the listed buildings and harm the amenity of the World Heritage Site: pollution, congestion and vibrations. The CAZ is primarily aimed at the former (pollution) though it is to be hoped that it will also change behaviours of both longer distance drivers and local users.
While the CAZ is therefore by no means a total solution to the traffic problems of Bath, we hope that this will provide a first step towards providing a number of ‘carrot and stick’ methods to changing behaviours regarding vehicle movements in the City.
We have two specific requests to make. The first is that any ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) installations used to run the charging system collect data as long as possible BEFORE the imposition of the charges so that there are definitive ‘Before and After’ datasets which will allow the effectiveness to be measured; and that secondly the income form the CAZ is at least in part hypothecated to incentivising other forms of non-polluting transport such as clean delivery methods, clean buses, strengthened public transport, and increased prioritisation of cycling and walking infrastructure.’
Reblogged this on Cycle Bath and commented:
It’s good to see the Bath Preservation Trust calling for the hypothecation of revenue to prioritise the delivery of walking and cycling infrastructure.
BPT recognising that the Clean Air Zone does not change behaviour and does not get people out of cars really needs repeating. It does nothing to solve congestion.
I note that BPT says a CAZ tackles Air Pollution but a CAZ ONLY tackles NOx, not PM2.5/10 (brake ,tyre, road dust etc) pollution. BPT calling for the CAZ to be the largest and include private vehicles is something everyone should be telling the council. I really hope the council takes note of BPT’s statement. We need so much more from the council. The vacuum of political will is really not helping here.
We are in a Public Health crisis caused by Air Pollution and Transport related Obesity. We need so much more from our councillors.