Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Air Quality

The Car Habit Is Tough to Break

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"People are addicted to their cars," said John Street, the Mayor of Philadelphia, at a panel on transport yesterday during the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. He was identifying what he saw as the major challenge for cities striving to make their transport systems more environmentally sustainable. That remark prompted a comment later from Jim […]

The Clock is Ticking for PlaNYC

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A delegation of approximately 30 members of the Campaign for New York’s Future are traveling to Albany today to meet with more than two dozen state legislators and other public officials. Today’s trip follows a series of meetings on Monday in which key coalition leaders joined Mayor Bloomberg to call for urgent State action on […]

PlanNYC’s Public Political Push Starts Today

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From a press release that just came across the Streetsblog transom: Leading members of the Campaign for New York’s Future, a broad coalition of 80 environmental, public health, civic, labor, community and business organizations, will today join Mayor Bloomberg in separate meetings with Governor Eliot Spitzer and State legislators to help call attention to the […]

Smoggy China to Observe World Car Free Day

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The Financial Times reports that China’s cities will participate in this year’s World Car Free Day. These actions have a measureable effect. A recent study found that when Beijing ordered 800,000 cars off the roads for three days last year, local nitrogen oxide air pollution fell by 40 per cent. More than 100 Chinese cities […]

High-Emission Vehicles to Pay £200 ($400!) to Enter London

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London mayor Ken Livingstone, whose congestion-pricing plan has served as a model for Mayor Bloomberg’s, is expected to unveil today an even more radical measure aimed at reducing pollution in his city. According to the Guardian, Livingstone’s proposal would target high-emission commercial vehicles: Ken Livingstone is expected to confirm that older, "dirtier" lorries and buses […]