Green transport
The new draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy aims to change the way people choose to travel.
By 2041, the Mayor aims for 80 per cent of all Londoners’ trips to be made by foot, by cycle, or by public transport.
Vehicle emissions can blight streets, harming health and contributing to climate change. London must meet legal air quality limits as soon as possible.
Creating streets and routes that encourage walking, cycling and public transport use will play a major role in reaching this goal. Transport for London (TfL) will deliver on this goal by using the Healthy Streets Approach to guide all of its decision making.
For those vehicles that remain, it is essential that we reduce emissions as soon as possible and switch them to zero emission technologies.
The Mayor is working to ensure London’s entire transport system is zero emission by 2050.
TfL will deliver their approach following wide-spread public consultation and building on the introduction of the Ultra Low Emission Zone and the Toxicity Charge (T-Charge).
This includes delivering central London and town centre zero emission zones from 2025, creating a zero emission zone in inner London by 2040 and a London-wide zone by 2050.
From next year, all new double-deck buses will be hybrid, electric or hydrogen to focus on only buying the greenest, cleanest buses. In central London, all double-deck buses will be hybrid by 2019 and all single-deck buses will emit zero exhaust emissions by 2020. By 2037 at the latest, all 9,200 buses across London will be zero emission.
The draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy public consultation closed on 2 October 2017. Find out more on TfL's page on the Mayor's Transport Strategy.
Walking and cycling
The success of London’s transport system in the future relies on the city becoming a place where people choose to walk and cycle. A total of £2.1 billion will be invested to 2021/22 to create Healthy Streets, focusing on increasing walking, cycling and public transport use, and improving road safety, public spaces and air quality.
TfL and the London boroughs will be improving street environments to ensure walking is prioritised across London’s streets. More traffic-free areas will be created, starting with the transformation of Oxford Street, changes to Parliament Square, and including trial closures of streets to motor traffic.
Programmes like ‘Legible London’, Liveable Neighbourhoods and Healthy Routes will provide accessible, safe and attractive walking environments and will make it easier for people to plan journeys on foot.
A new London-wide network of strategic cycling routes will transform the convenience and experience of cycling for all types of trips. TfL’s strategic cycling analysis enables infrastructure improvements to be made where they will be most effective, mapping street changes to current and future cycling demand.
The Mayor aims for 70 per cent of Londoners to live within 400 metres of a high-quality, safe cycle route by 2041.
All of this work will provide better environments for walking and cycling to enable all Londoners to do at least the 20 minutes of active travel they need to stay healthy each day, by 2041.
Low Emission Bus Zones
The Mayor is spending more than £300 million to transform London’s bus fleet by retrofitting thousands of buses and committing to phase out pure diesel double-deck buses from 2018.
We have announced 12 Low Emission Bus Zones, putting the greenest buses on the capital’s most polluted routes, with the first located in Putney High Street and Brixton Road.
The zones are expected to reduce NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) emissions by 84% and thousands of school children in these areas will benefit from cleaner air.
Find out more about the other zones in London on TfL's website.
Zero emission taxis
New taxis licensed after 1 January 2018 will need to be zero emission-capable to help clean up London's dirty air. The new plans include new ‘zero emission’ ranks for drivers who pioneer green technology alongside a network of rapid electric charge points.
This charging network will be integral in supporting the greening of London's iconic black cab fleet, with many charging points dedicated exclusively to their use by the end of 2018.
TfL aim that all taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) will be zero emission-capable by 2033.
New technology is changing the way many Londoners access taxis and PHVs, and the Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan also addresses how regulation can be used to ensure safety standards are applied across the taxi and private hire markets.
Owners of taxis and private hire vehicles can visit TfL's website to understand the new requirements.
Electric vehicles
We are investing £18 million into a new scheme that will make it easier to own an electric vehicle in the capital.
Rapid charging points that will power vehicles in nearly 30 minutes will be installed across London. Compare this to the three to four hours when using a standard unit.
The initial plan is to see 75 rapid charging points in the ground by the end of 2017, with the network growing to 150 by the end of 2018 and 300 fully functioning by 2020.
Additionally, there will soon be 1500 new standard electric vehicle charging points installed across London. The £4.5 million investment, across 25 boroughs, will make electric vehicles an easier and more practical option for Londoners.
Ultra Low Emission Zone
The world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) launched on 8 April 2019, approximately 17 months earlier than planned.
The ULEZ will supersede the T-Charge and create stricter emissions standards for diesel vehicles, 24 hours, 7 days a week. Those that do not comply will face a charge.
Electric, hybrid and hydrogen buses
TfL will introduce around 3,000 ultra low emission double-deck buses in central London by 2019 and more than 250 zero emission single-deck buses into central London by 2020.
Euro VI is the latest standard in diesel engines, reducing emissions of NOx by up to 95 per cent compared to the previous generation of buses. Since 2014 new buses have been supplied with these ultra low emission engines, and they are introduced across London at a rate of between 700 and 1,000 buses a year.
Electric
In central London, electric buses currently run on routes:
- 507 - Waterloo station to Victoria bus station
- 521 - Waterloo station to London Bridge station
- RV1 - Covent Garden to Tower Gateway station (hydrogen-powered)
Routes outside central London also operate with electric buses including:
- 98 - Willesden bus garage to Red Lion Square
- 108 - Stratford International station to Lewisham station
- 312 - South Croydon bus garage to Norwood Junction station
- H98 - School Road to Wood End Green Road
Hybrid
Over 2,600 diesel-electric hybrid buses currently run through the capital, making up 30 per cent of our bus fleet. All of these buses are quieter, more fuel-efficient and cleaner than standard diesel buses, reducing emissions by between 30-40 per cent.
Hydrogen
We want London to be a world leader in hydrogen and fuel cell activity.
Hydrogen is a universal fuel that will play a major role in our clean, sustainable energy future. Together with fuel cells, hydrogen will increasingly provide us all with clean and secure energy to power vehicles.
We have the potential for carbon-neutral and emission-free energy if the hydrogen itself is produced from a carbon-neutral source such as London's waste, solar or wind power.
Hydrogen fuel is a great way to power public and private transport in London. The only emission is water vapour which means that no carbon dioxide or other air pollutants are relased into the air.
We know it works too, as our RV1 bus already runs on it.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles have a range similar to conventional diesel vehicles achieving 350-400 miles on a single tank of fuel, and they can be refuelled within 3-5 minutes.
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