Survey - London cyclists perception of air pollution/ safety

Kings College London postgrad student surveying cyclists' perceptions
of air pollution & safety in London.

http://bit.ly/cex9va

Participants requested !

(It's not my survey - don't blame me for the questions.)

"tim" wrote in message
...
Kings College London postgrad student surveying cyclists'
perceptions
of air pollution & safety in London.

http://bit.ly/cex9va

Participants requested !

(It's not my survey - don't blame me for the questions.)

Pah, I lived through the Great Smog of 1952. Air pollution doesn't
count unless you not only can see it, but taste it as well, and it
closes the schools down.

Mind you, after coming back to London in 1988, fifteen years after I
had bought my first car with a catalytic converter, I was astonished
to find that not only did British cars not have any such things, but
a good many of them had hand operated chokes as well, invariably
miss-set.

On a bicycle, because Britain drives on the left, one tends to notice
such things, because most cars have the exhaust pipe on the wrong
side, except those designed in left driving countries like Japan.

Still, the Great Climate Change that had taken place, with the number
of hours of sunshine per year doubling, was nice

The fact that High Water at London Bridge has risen ten inches during
my lifetime didn't matter, as the Thames Barrage got built in time.
Anyway that water level rise didn't have much to do with either local
or global warming

Jeremy Parker

On 2 May, 18:46, "Jeremy Parker" wrote:
"tim" wrote in message

...

Kings College London postgrad student surveying cyclists'
perceptions
of air pollution & safety in London.

http://bit.ly/cex9va

Participants requested !

(It's not my survey - don't blame me for the questions.)

Pah, I lived through the Great Smog of 1952. *Air pollution doesn't
count unless you not only can see it, but taste it as well, and it
closes the schools down.

Mind you, after coming back to London in 1988, fifteen years after I
had bought my first car with a catalytic converter, I was astonished
to find that not only did British cars not have any such things, but
a good many of them had hand operated chokes as well, invariably
miss-set.

On a bicycle, because Britain drives on the left, one tends to notice
such things, because most cars have the exhaust pipe on the wrong
side, except those designed in left driving countries like Japan.

Still, the Great Climate Change that had taken place, with the number
of hours of sunshine per year doubling, was nice

The fact that High Water at London Bridge has risen ten inches during
my lifetime didn't matter, as the Thames Barrage got built in time.
Anyway that water level rise didn't have much to do with either local
or global warming

Jeremy Parker

These would seem to disagree with you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8578952.stm

"Call to tackle pollution 'role in 50,000 early deaths'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ean-commission

"Government faces legal proceedings over London air quality"

--
UK Radical Campaigns
www.zing.icom43.net
A driving licence is a licence to kill.

I guess it was the lucky ones who lived through the Great Smog ! How
many was it that failed to ?

Campaign for Clean Air in London and the Information Commissioner are
at the Information Tribunal in a weeks time trying to find out what
Boris J and Lord Hunt (Defra) have been keeping from us regarding
their plans to do things to satisfy Europe and prevent UK being
clobbered with big fines for appalling air quality in London.

Conspiracy theorists can try to guess what is redacted under the big
black scrawl on the released documents attached to the bottom of

http://www.cleanairinlondon.org/blog...8/4516369.html

I don't suggest buying a diesel in the near future.

On 3 May, 09:14, tim wrote:
I guess it was the lucky ones who lived through the Great Smog ! How
many was it that failed to ?

One of the great things about the smog was that it made driving
extremely difficult when you could hardly see your hand in front of
your face. But then, with fewer cars, most of the pollution came from
coal fires in the home and some London power stations, which
fortunately are now extinct.

Campaign for Clean Air in London and the Information Commissioner are
at the Information Tribunal in a weeks time trying to find out what
Boris J and Lord Hunt (Defra) have been keeping from us regarding
their plans to do things to *satisfy Europe and prevent UK being
clobbered with big fines for appalling air quality in London.

Conspiracy theorists can try to guess what is redacted under the big
black scrawl on the released documents attached to the bottom of

http://www.cleanairinlondon.org/blog...8/4516369.html

I don't suggest buying a diesel in the near future.

They are always banging on about particulates but its the other toxic
exhaust emissions that also bother me, nasty invisible stuff.

--
UK Radical Campaigns
www.zing.icom43.net
A driving licence is a licence to kill.

On 3 May, 06:26, Doug wrote:
On 2 May, 18:46, "Jeremy Parker" wrote:



"tim" wrote in message

....

Kings College London postgrad student surveying cyclists'
perceptions
of air pollution & safety in London.

http://bit.ly/cex9va

Participants requested !

(It's not my survey - don't blame me for the questions.)

Pah, I lived through the Great Smog of 1952. *Air pollution doesn't
count unless you not only can see it, but taste it as well, and it
closes the schools down.

Mind you, after coming back to London in 1988, fifteen years after I
had bought my first car with a catalytic converter, I was astonished
to find that not only did British cars not have any such things, but
a good many of them had hand operated chokes as well, invariably
miss-set.

On a bicycle, because Britain drives on the left, one tends to notice
such things, because most cars have the exhaust pipe on the wrong
side, except those designed in left driving countries like Japan.

Still, the Great Climate Change that had taken place, with the number
of hours of sunshine per year doubling, was nice

The fact that High Water at London Bridge has risen ten inches during
my lifetime didn't matter, as the Thames Barrage got built in time.
Anyway that water level rise didn't have much to do with either local
or global warming

Jeremy Parker

These would seem to disagree with you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8578952.stm

"Call to tackle pollution 'role in 50,000 early deaths'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ir-quality-eur...

"Government faces legal proceedings over London air quality"

--
UK Radical Campaignswww.zing.icom43.net
A driving licence is a licence to kill.

Can you produce any evidence of any deaths which have been recorded as
being caused specifically by pollution produced by cars in London
Doug ?

Doug wrote:


They are always banging on about particulates but its the other toxic
exhaust emissions that also bother me, nasty invisible stuff.

'Ramming Dust'?


--
Dave - intelligent enough to realise that a push bike is a kid's toy, not a
viable form of transport.

On 3 May, 10:03, Doug wrote:

One of the great things about the smog was that it made driving
extremely difficult when you could hardly see your hand in front of
your face. But then, with fewer cars, most of the pollution came from
coal fires in the home and some London power stations, which
fortunately are now extinct.


Yes - there was a local 1952 news report about the guy sitting on the
bonnet (waving lighted rolls of newspaper to direct the driver which
way to steer) suffered a broken leg when they crashed into another car
at the crossroads.

Jeremy Parker wrote:
"Doug" wrote

[snip]

One of the great things about the smog was that it made driving
extremely difficult when you could hardly see your hand in front of
your face. But then, with fewer cars, most of the pollution came from
coal fires in the home and some London power stations, which
fortunately are now extinct.

[snip]

As I recall about half the pollution came from keeping the home fires
burning, and half from trains, which of course were steam powered
then and, as well as passengers, carried a lot of freight which
nowadays would go by road (or as energy down electric wires) Power
stations, I thought, were a fairly small part, although I don't know
the exact numbers.

In those days, of course, there was no global warming. Professor
Callender (?sp) had worried about it before WW II, and then people
were singing songs about the dust bowl and such, but global warming
suddenly stopped, in about the year I was born, and stayed halted for
about three decades. When I took a bunch of meteorology classes in
college the subject was hardly mentioned. There was somebody, HH
Lamb, I think his name was, who had got interested in how the climate
had changed since the ice age, and was setting up an institute, I
think in East Anglia somewhere, to study its history.. Did anything
ever come of that?

I subject I would like to find out more about is the CO2 crisis of
the 1860s, which began the movement to demand "green lungs" in
cities. Can anybody tell me anything about that?

Yes. Some politicians sotto voce: Labour decided that green spaces, parks,
allotments, etc, were better carpeted with council houses and flats.