London’s slow progress in meeting its air pollution targets is partly because of an unexpectedly large rise in the use of motorcycles, scientists have said.
Since 2010, levels of fine particulate pollution from London traffic have dropped at only a quarter of the rate in Paris. In the same period there has been an 11 per cent year-on-year increase in the use of motorcycles in the city.
“It’s a really big and unexpected rise,” Gary Fuller, from King’s College London, said. In trying to explain the trend two factors stand out: the rise of delivery companies such as Deliveroo, and that a decision in 2011 meant motorcycles have been allowed to use bus lanes in London.
The exhaust tests applied to motorbikes are weaker than