Bristol Clean Air Zone

Of course you’re right we can’t go on like we are now. Most people accept that until it personally affects them. 

This thread is proceeding in an alternative reality, as has already been said, there won’t be a Baltic Wharf site to travel to in 2021 or whenever.

I wish we had a more constructive way forward than banning everything without considering what happens instead. Given the current state of affairs with electric powered - charging/distribution infrastructure, limitations of vehicles, cost etc (not to mention the much ignored polluting aspects of battery powered manufacturing), the blind faith in electric is laughable unless you can afford a Tesla. So called Hybrids are just a fudge. Like millions of others, my daughter lives on a street of victorian terrace houses. Like many young people she is passionately committed to saving the planet and tries to do all the right things including running a hybrid car. She has to park on the street, so charging it is a nightmare. The Council and MP have been completely disinterested in her suggestions to improve the situation, each blaming each other for the lack of action/progress.

These vehicles in the inner city - not just Bristol but it's a good example - are rarely there for a skylark. They are bringing in goods and people, or taking them out again. So if they are banned from doing so then either people or goods will have to be trans-shipped to reach the city centre OR whatever the activity that was involved will move elsewhere.

My view is that within a few years the activity will move elsewhere due to the cost of having to move goods onto a different vehicle, or the general unreliability of public transport in turning up - especially for the journey back home!

So the city centre will be cleaner, and quieter - much quieter - without the synergy of today's range of activities.  Whatever it was that made a city vibrant in the past will have gone, and other activities will drift away. About the only enterprises I see not moving are NHS facilities. There are some cities in North America where the city centre is already a desert.

Maybe new vehicle power technology such as battery, clockwork or even horse will become commonplace, but the need for people and goods to be in the city will no longer be there.

Not sure I share that vision of the future. Bristol is a good example of a transformed city, where (young) people have flocked back to city centre living in their thousands fuelled by trendy housing developments aimed at that market - Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and others ditto. Cultural, retail, hospitality, employment, educational facilities have followed them to create a very vibrant city scene. Lorries in cities may be less evident, but that’s been more than compensated by ‘white van man’ delivering all those online purchases which is slowly but surely killing the traditional retail giants. Those big city centre buildings no longer wanted by retailers, in turn become student accommodation and/or high quality flats for young professionals. Walk from Baltic Wharf to the Harbourside and city centre in the evening. It’s about as far from deserted as you’ll find in any city. They’ll even be plenty of people out on boats rowing in the dark. However, do that same walk in the mid 1990s and it would be a very different story. Consumption of services in Bristol has never been higher and delivery vehicles are and will continue to play a huge part in that.

North America isn’t a good comparative example, they are a different species altogether!

Without billions being spent on infrastructure for alternative fueled vehicles, which every one in government including local will try to not do or blame each other,for not doing, then councils can announce any schemes  they like ,to score  points against each other but no real substance to how it will work,and London for all Sadik Khans bluster costs far more to administer than benefits the residents

How really committed are the 'powers that be'? Do we see a requirement that all new builds have solar roofs, all those vast acreages of factory/distribution warehouses required to install solar within five years? Where are the major tidal flow installations? How are we really going to generate the clean energy we need?

Saving the planet will always be slowed down by the need to generate income(tax) from ALL sources. Proved by the financial assistance given to solar arrays fitted to domestic homes being reduced after a short time🤷🏻‍♂️😕

The irony. All those years of driving over Avonmouth Bridge gazing in wonder at all those cars off the docks......

When we drive past the cars in the docks I can take a quick review of the economy, after the financial crash the car parks nearly emptied out. 

The government has set pollution targets, which Bristol has missed, it's catch up time now.

One good thing is we are generating more power from greener sources. If we go down the hydrogen car route there might be zero exhaust pollution etc.

Yep agree brue. My OH looked into hydrogen option years ago. They are playing catch up on that as well. There’s little firm commitment about anything to be honest.

For me it transcends political parties, it needs a dedicated cross party team that will keep going regardless of any change of Government. But the utter shambles our country is in at the moment, and the sheer ineptness of the bulk of those who represent us, all parties, is at an all time low. You do wonder how much worse things can get. 

We've been using our EV for three years now, no problems on short or long journeys. We recently had a loan car which was a BMW hybrid, a very nice car and we agreed for city and local driving (30 mile limit) it was good. BMW already have hydrogen cars on track for production and other makers too.