The Freight Transport Association (FTA) says London mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon’s call for a peak-hour lorry ban is short-sighted and would put hundreds more vans on the city’s roads at the busiest time of day.
The Liberal Democrat candidate wants HGVs and construction vehicles banned from the city centre daily from 7-10am and 4-7pm, enforced by Congestion Charge cameras. She claims the ban would improve air pollution and make roads safer for cyclists. The idea was also mooted by current mayor Boris Johnson.
But Christopher Snelling, FTA’s head of national and regional policy, said: “Banning lorries at peak times makes no sense.
“Deliveries still need to be made so a medium-sized HGV would be replaced by 10 vans, with increased emissions, congestion, cost and potential injuries to vulnerable road users.
“Rather than ban lorries from our city centres, we need to focus on all aspects of road use to improve safety and pollution for everyone. HGVs can certainly play their part with cleaner Euro VI engines, revisions to mirrors and sideguards and better cab design.”
Snelling said FTA urged the Government to offer incentives to enable operators to make the often costly changes to their fleets.
Pidgeon has also called for the creation of edge-of-town ‘delivery hubs’ like those used during the London Olympics to avoid the need for large vehicles to enter the city centre.
Snelling said: “Again, this will put more vehicles on already busy the roads. Simplistic lorry bans are unlikely to be the best solution in terms of safety and will make it harder to operate the businesses that London relies on every day.”
Gordy - 24/02/2016 12:14
Why don't we make deliveries in Electric Vans overnight? Also, why is there no emissions test for things like the refreigerated units on top of the lorries that sometimes have their own diesel engines? More, or less vehicles on the streets ? Who cares when we are poisioning our capital with fumes. Take a look around the world. We need to STOP poisonous emissions or we will all suffer. We all share the same atmosphere - let's make it cleaner! EVs are not the PERFECT solution as they merely offset the poisonous fumes to somewhere else on the planet but surely this is a start and better than what we have at the moment....We are narrow minded if we only think of the cost of fleet replacement.....How much does it cost to swap 7 million pairs of lungs every few years in London alone?