Wood Burning Stoves to be banned in London

[Triassic]

Wood burning could be banned in some of the most polluted areas of London, under new restrictions proposed by the capital’s mayor.

 

Sadiq Khan wants the power to ban burning wood in parts of the city with poor air quality, due to the fine particle pollution they cause.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sadiq-khan-ban-wood-burning-stoves-london-air-pollution-fires-mayor-smog-a7973576.html

 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Triassic

[Jeremy Harris]

See here:

 

[Temp]

Note  the smoke rings in the background of his photo :-)

[AliG]

I don't know about WBS but where I work in London the traffic has come to a standstill since they installed the cycle highway. You can almost taste the air, it is absolutely disgusting to spend time outside. I live in the area and worry what it is doing to my lungs, I have to constantly clean the window ledges which get covered in a fine black dust.

 

Roll on EVs for London basically. I think changing taxis to be EVs will make a big difference as they make up an enormous proportion of central London traffic. At least Uber's are mainly Prii(apparently that's the plural)

[Triassic]

Where I used to live they've banned cyclists from riding on the road across the only two bridges over the local river. They can only use one of the bridges and must dismount and walk across pushing their bikes on the footpath.

 

The car is king!

Edited September 30, 2017 by Triassic

[Triassic]

4 hours ago, JSHarris said:

See here:

 

Missed that post, sorry! 

[ToughButterCup]

There was  a relevant experiment in Lancaster: it may still be ongoing. Small trees in planters were  placed on the pavement such that a screen was formed between the houses and the (reasonably) heavy traffic going south out of Lancaster.

 

Initial unconfirmed reports have been good: there is some suppression of pollutants. But I am not sure whether there is a causal link between the pollution reduction and the tree screen. There trees are no longer there, which is a pity because the Silver birch trees were a very welcome screen for people walking north towards Lancaster Infirmary.

 

[MikeSharp01]

Wood burners are not a problem here, in the verdant grassland around the Kentish M25 in between the M20 and the M26 the animals like it better than diesel smoke and noise! I chop down a tree every year, log it and let it season before stuffing it up the chimney using simple combustion, perhaps I should stop. I worry however that my contribution will make little difference as this article points out that possibly the worlds 15 largest ships create more sulphur pollution than ALL the worlds cars put together and although it was a thought experiment by Prof Corbett they looked at it on more or less yesterday and found it to be a good one.

[SteamyTea]

4 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

There was  a relevant experiment in Lancaster: it may still be ongoing

I seem to remember that the only 'proper' study was a NASA one done several decades ago.  And has been misquoted and distorted ever since.

I think there was a bit about it in my comic last year.

 

May have been this one:

https://ia800300.us.archive.org/35/items/nasa_techdoc_19930072988/19930072988.pdf

Edited September 30, 2017 by SteamyTea

[Jeremy Harris]

Which reminds me, one of the most useful sources of technical papers, going right back to the early 1900's, is the NASA/NACA technical reports library: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp

 

It's publicly accessible to anyone, and it makes a fascinating research source.  Some of the very early NACA papers, mainly from Langley, but a fair few copied and translated German papers captured after the war, and some of the old RAE papers from here, are in there, with some of the really fundamental principles that we still use today.

Edited October 1, 2017 by JSHarris
typo

[Ferdinand]

15 hours ago, Triassic said:

Where I used to live they've banned cyclists from riding on the road across the only two bridges over the local river. They can only use one of the bridges and must dismount and walk across pushing their bikes on the footpath.

 

The car is king!

 

OT: Do you have a Google maps or streetview link? That sounds potentially untenable.

 

Where I am they banned cycling in the entire town centre (Mansfield) after a couple of schoolkids startled a few people cycling round the outdoor market one afternoon. So now it is a 15 minute push-and-walk or go via the multilane ringroad for kids from the other side of the town centre visiting the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre. 

[Jeremy Harris]

My understanding is that local authorities only have the power to create a byelaw banning certain forms of transport on a very limited set of public highways, principally footpaths, and some bridleways.  Cycles cannot be banned from a normal vehicular right of way by a local authority, only by national law, such as the ban on cycles on motorways.

 

Local authorities can place advisory safety notices up if they wish, but these cannot be prohibitions.  If the road is a vehicular right of way, then cycles can use it. Cycles have the same rights of way as any other road user, in fact they have greater rights than some, such as they are not required to comply with any speed limits.

Edited October 1, 2017 by JSHarris