Skip to main content

New freight air quality initiative to reduce harmful emissions in London

The LoCITY programme has taken its first steps to improve air quality in London by publishing data to help increase the availability and uptake of low emission vans and lorries, following its initial four months’ research. The research demonstrates that to reduce freight’s impact on London’s air quality the use of low emission commercial vehicles must be increased. It has also revealed some of the key barriers that are holding back the use of low emission vehicles. One area highlighted is a lack of info
May 26, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The LoCITY programme has taken its first steps to improve air quality in London by publishing data to help increase the availability and uptake of low emission vans and lorries, following its initial four months’ research.

The research demonstrates that to reduce freight’s impact on London’s air quality the use of low emission commercial vehicles must be increased. It has also revealed some of the key barriers that are holding back the use of low emission vehicles. One area highlighted is a lack of information about the capabilities, benefits and requirements of ULEVs. Without this information operators can find it hard to justify the purchase of low emission vehicles. A lack of impartial information on alternative fuels and infrastructure has been identified as a further problem. LoCITY aims to become the trusted source of advice and guidance for fleet operators to make informed purchasing decisions on low emission vehicles.

LoCITY is an industry-led programme helping the freight and fleet industry reduce its impact on air quality by increasing the use of ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs). 1466 Transport for London (TfL) is part funding and monitoring LoCITY to ensure it is a success. More than 600 organisations from across the commercial vehicle industry, government and academia are already working together on the programme to make the widespread use of low emission commercial vehicles a reality.
 
LoCITY aims to create new environmental operating standards and contractual clauses which will help anyone buying goods or services to specify the use of low emission vehicles.

It will also investigate, through research and trials, the impact of cleaner vehicles on business operations, to bust myths and give confidence to operators who may be considering adding low emission vehicles to their fleets.  
 
According to Mike Brown MVO, London's Transport Commissioner the industry has an important role to play in saving lives by improving our air quality, and over the next five years LoCITY will play an important role in helping increase the take up of low emission commercial vehicles.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Swarco matrix signs help reduce bridge strikes at London hotspot
    March 7, 2017
    Six full colour full matrix electronic warning signs from Swarco Traffic have helped Network Rail and Transport for London (TfL) to reduce the number of oversized lorries hitting a railway bridge on London’s South Circular road by more than a third since being installed last summer. In the six-month period from January to July 2016 before the signs were introduced there were 11 crashes at the Thurlow Park Bridge in Tulse Hill. In the six months since their installation, there have only been seven inciden
  • Birmingham CAZ is green for go
    July 26, 2021
    For urban authorities worldwide, the health of residents is racing up the political agenda. Ben Spencer looks at how one city - Birmingham, UK - has established its own Clean Air Zone and is investing in alternative-fuel vehicles and public transport incentives
  • Pollution has more than one solution
    April 7, 2014
    Professor Alexander Baklanov of the World Meteorological Organization talks to Colin Sowman about the difficulties of reducing urban pollution. The inhabitants of Beijing have recently been suffering pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit while the European Union is revitalising its efforts to implement and enforce air quality standards. Almost inevitably much of the clean-up efforts are likely to focus on traffic planners and engineers.
  • DfT appoints TRL to evaluate performance of low emission buses
    August 22, 2017
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) to monitor and evaluate the performance and impacts of low emission buses in 13 locations across the country. Positioned across the UK, variations of gas, full-electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses will be procured and operated by bus operators. TRL will carry out data collection and analysis of bus and infrastructure performance, cost savings and environmental impacts to create insig