Shoppers and residents using Putney High Street are the first to benefit from Mayor Sadiq Khan’s new low emission bus zones which will rollout to some the capital’s worst pollution hotspots over the next three years.
First announced last year, the zones will be served exclusively by clean buses and are part of City Hall and Transport for London’s plans to reduce airborne pollution which contributes to thousands of premature deaths every year.
Putney High Street exceeded hourly legal levels of nitrogen dioxide on 1,248 occasions in 2016, significantly higher than the maximum 18 times per year permitted by EU rules.
In addition to Putney High Street, where all seven local bus routes will now be served by 145 clean buses, eleven more zones will launch by 2020, with a Brixton and Streatham zone set to be introduced in October.
Mayor Khan, said: “London’s toxic air is an outrage and I promised to make cleaning it up one of my top priorities. Today, I’m delivering on that pledge by introducing our first ever low emission bus zone.
“I have asked TfL to remove the oldest, dirtiest buses from our streets and this new route, along with the 11 others we’ll be introducing, will make a big difference to the pollution caused by our public transport system.”
