Call Sign December 2010 - Page 5 - Road spraying to lower particulates?

Road spraying to lower particulates?
Most Dial-a-Cab drivers will know of the problems facing London, said to be caused by diesel vehicles emitting PM10 particles – known as particulates. Most taxis – in addition to trucks and many buses - currently suffer from this soot expulsion and it has lead to Mayor Boris Johnson threatening a 2015 cut off date for older cabs and a minimum Euro 5 engine for new cabs sold after January 2012. However, as an experiment Transport for London has announced a trial for a new method of trapping those particulate emissions with the hope of improving the City’s air quality. The road surface at two locations in London - the A501, which includes Euston Road and Marylebone Road and the A311 Victoria Embankment - will be sprayed between midnight and 6am with a dust-suppressant solution that it is hoped will assist the emitted PM10 particles to stick to the road. The roads will first be swept and then a calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) solution will be sprayed onto the carriageway using modified salt gritters. The solution sticks to particulate matter and prevents it re-circulating into the air. The particulates then stick to the roadway to eventually be washed away by rain. The CMA is a biodegradable saline solution that is said to not be harmful to human health. The two above sites are possibly the worst in terms of poor air quality and are in danger of exceeding European Union legal limits and costing London a huge fine. Mayor Boris recently said he would ban heavy trucks from the city and now says: "We have scoured the globe to find new ways to tackle pollution and found this wonderful contraption that tackles air quality head on, sticking particles to the roads' surface and preventing their dastardly	*Stanley Roth at the old PCO explaining about his CNG taxi to Nigel Wetherall and Dave Stock* escape back into the air we breathe. We expect this new measure to have an immediate impact on air quality in the most polluted areas of central London." The two sites will be sprayed overnight several times each week. The trial is costing around £300,000 with roadside particulate monitors collating the results. PM10 levels will be monitored during the test period by the London Air Quality Network, which has 100 monitoring sites. If results follow those in Europe, TfL hope that PM10 levels will be reduced by up to 20 % and that could well be the best £300K TfL has ever spent. The trial will last for six months and results will be reported in autumn 2011. Former DaC driver Stanley Roth (ex-Y53) has been a one-man band in trying to promote the use of natural gas taxis, having been driving only CNG taxis for several decades. His quotes used in Call Sign many times over the years revolved around CNG cutting down on air and noise pollution. Can anyone now deny that he has been right all along?
Master Jim lays a cross The Garden of Remembrance
Each year on the Monday before Remembrance Sunday, Masters and Clerks of the City Livery Companies attend an open air remembrance service in the garden at the east end of St Paul’s Cathedral. Dial-a-Cab’s Jim Rainbird (T25), the new Master of The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, attended the service along with its Clerk, Mary Whitworth. Also at the service was The Lord Mayor of London, St Paul’s Clergy, many VIPs and Royal British Legion personnel. Jim was amongst the Masters who placed small wooden cross of remembrance in the garden.