Local authorities across the UK are being encouraged to adopt London’s new ‘Engine Off’ initiative.
The awareness campaign, by Idling Action London, which uses data from a recent Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) study, encourages all drivers in the capital to turn off their engines when stationary.
In a statement, TRL says that air pollution is “not just a London problem but a UK wide challenge” and wants other regions of the UK to form a complementary nationwide campaign.
Each year, outdoor air pollution is estimated to cause 40,000 premature deaths in the UK – 9,000 of which are in London.
TRL says more than 75 percent of deaths are outside the capital, with large cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh suffering from major sitting traffic issues.
According to the Department for Transport, the number of licensed cars across all 32 London Boroughs in 2020 totalled over 2.65 million and for LGVs over 210,000. Based on the TRL findings, if 50 percent of all cars in London idled at a set of traffic lights for just one minute, nearly 30,000 kg of CO2 would be released in just one day.
