Standing on the shoulders of giants

London mayor Ken Livingstone is using the Low Emission Zone as an opportunity to take credit for the progress made by others, particularly vehicle manufacturers and lorry operators, according to the Freight Transport Association.
“The Mayor’s preferred scheme will add little benefit to the progress that is already under way. The architects of the scheme were so poorly informed about the industry, and the scheme is so poorly thought through, that many of the older Euro 1 category buses and trucks that the scheme was supposed to deter will be able to come into London without further modifications. Similarly, for all the rhetoric about fairness, no effective mechanism exists, or will exist by 2008, to control foreign registered buses and coaches that do not comply.”
“The Mayor is well aware that over the next couple of years there will be changes in the quality of petrol and diesel, with the introduction of sulphur free fuel and a mandatory bio fuel component. He also knows that the Treasury has brought in incentives to purchase state-of-the-art Euro 5 vehicles that far exceed the derisory targets which he proposes. Most importantly, perhaps, he knows that London operators are socially responsible and are actively looking at investments to reduce their carbon footprints.”
The FTA’s Gordon Telling said: “All of these initiatives by operators, manufacturers and government mean that the Mayor can make his announcement, safe in the knowledge that he cannot fail to achieve his goal because it is already being delivered by others.”