London pushes motorists towards using electric cars

Bloomberg

London’s lawmakers aren’t against cars and vans driving through its most congested parts, as long as they turn electric soon.
A suite of policies aimed at cleaning up London’s toxic air pollution isn’t there to penalise drivers but to improve public health, Shirley Rodrigues, London’s Deputy Mayor for environment and energy, said at the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit.
“The mayor has been really clear that he’s not anti-cars, he’s anti-pollution,” said Rodrigues. Policies are in place to encourage people to use public transport more frequently, greening the city center and making it more pleasant to walk around. The journeys that are necessary to take by car should “be electrified.”
Mayor Sadiq Khan has put cutting air pollution at the heart of his agenda after it became clear the city had been consistently breaching European Union clean air rules since 2010. In 2017, some parts of London ran past their annual limit just five days into the new year.
As well as increasing spending on cycle paths and widening sidewalks to make streets more inviting for pedestrians, streets have narrowed in many places. Khan introduced an ultra-low emission zone that charges older, more polluting cars a levy to drive through central London.
Together, the measures are aimed at coaxing people out of cars and onto public transport in a bid to reduce harmful emissions.