The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today delivered the second in his network of 12 Low Emission Bus Zones in one of the most polluted areas of London, Brixton Road.
The new clean bus zone, running from Brixton Hill via Stockwell Road and Streatham High Road to Streatham Place, carries 130,000 passengers a day on a total of 450 buses on 23 scheduled routes.
The route travels close to a number of primary schools, meaning more than 1,000 local children are now breathing cleaner air, as well as past Brixton Tube station which sees over 50,000 passengers a day enter and exit via Brixton Road.
It is the second of 12 new Low Emission Bus Zones to be introduced in heavily polluted areas. The first zone launched on Putney High Street in March 2017. Already, after less than six months, the Putney route has seen a 90 per cent reduction in hourly pollution level breaches and early analysis suggests a 40 per cent reduction in annual NO2 concentrations at Putney High Street.
The polluted Brixton to Streatham route exceeded hourly legal levels of nitrogen dioxide on 539 occasions in 2016 and breached annual legal pollution limits by 5 January this year. Under EU rules, the limit should not be exceeded more than 18 times in a year.
London’s filthy air makes chronic illnesses worse, shortens life expectancy and can damage lung development. The Mayor recently revealed World Health Organisation (WHO) data that showed that all Londoners live in areas exceeding legal limits for toxic air pollution (PM 2.5 particles).
Ten more Low Emission Bus Zones will follow Brixton and Putney. The remaining zones will be delivered by 2020, fulfilling the Mayor’s manifesto commitment.
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