This is where it gets difficult, as you can't directly compare these numbers. Yes, air pollution presumably causes a bunch of premature deaths, but clearly air

This is where it gets difficult, as you can't directly compare these numbers. Yes, air pollution presumably causes a bunch of premature deaths, but clearly air pollution can not directly kill you. In the meantime, road traffic accidents is one, if not the biggest factor in the death of otherwise totally healthy people like teenagers, who we would easily expect to live another 40 years. In any case, the magnitude of the problem doesn't exactly matter, as banning diesel cars doesn't solve the pollution deaths. Normal gasoline cars have the same pollution problems, if only on a somewhat lesser scale, particularly when used for short distances as customary in the city. As such, yes, we still have to get rid of cars in cities to fix this.