Londoner with a diesel car (2016 Ford that is ULEZ compliant), here: London's air is far, far cleaner than many other cities around the World. I was in Paris l

Londoner with a diesel car (2016 Ford that is ULEZ compliant), here: London's air is far, far cleaner than many other cities around the World. I was in Paris last weekend, and I think that's more polluted because congestion seems much worse in a much larger area than it does in London. That does not mean it is clean or safe, however, there are challenges: As the article points out, for many years the government pushed diesel, so there are a lot of cars out there. They have advantages that make them attractive to a lot of people (myself included), so if they're ULEZ compliant, we'll buy them in part because the turnaround has made them cheaper on the second hand market. Fleets of German cars are being bought, depreciated and sold at knock-down prices. Go to the biggest 2nd hand dealer in London (Cargiant), go to the Merc and BMW hangar, and find me a petrol car: you'll be hard pushed, and when you do find them, they're more expensive. Electric is also not a viable option for the vast majority of Londoners. Where I live (TW1), we're way outside central London, in Zone 4. Even here, off-road parking is very much a rarity and exception. The local council (Richmond) has thrown money at lampost charging stations, and is installing around 250 of them across the borough. A borough of 195k people are going to share 250 charging points. This is absurdly low. What about public transport? It's true, London is one of the best public transport cities in the World. I use the bus frequnetly, often to get to my nearest tube (a 45 minute walk away), or use the train. However, it's also expensive, and for most people driving - even with the ULEZ and congestion charges - can make more financial sense. It's interesting as well that the article calls out Marylebone Road and Hyde Park corner as the most polluted spots. Marylebone road is party to 4 major train stations: Marylebone, Euston, Kings Cross and St Pancras International. Almost anybody trying to make a train journey to the North of London or to avoid using a plane to get to Europe is going to travel along Marylebone road. It's taking one for the team: those taxis and cars are normally carrying people to get to those stations. They're well served by public transport, but heavy bags and suitcases on the London transport system is fractured: it prompts us to use cars instead. I did this myself just this weekend when getting to and from St Pancras for the Eurostar, because the alternatives were utterly draining. And as for Hyde Park corner, well it's a central crossing point for many routes out to the South, West and North of London and its centre. The alternative would be to build ring roads that were once planned, but would turn London into a motorway-centric city like Birmingham, which would just encourage more driving. Diesels need to get more expensive to own, electric needs to get easier to own for those of us without driveways, public transport needs to get cheaper, and the concentration of rail terminuses into a mile long stretch of road needs rethinking long term (it's going to get worse with HS2). But at the same time, we have it way better than many other cities.