Contaminated air, public health and Cairgo Bike

In December 2020, a nine year old schoolgirl in London became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Southwark Coroner’s Court ruled that air pollution had “made a material contribution to Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s death”. Justifying the decision the Coroner reported that “Ella had been exposed to two air pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (largely emitted by diesel cars) and particulate matter in excess of WHO guidelines, and died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution.” A key piece of evidence in the case was examination of tissue samples and data from pollution sensors near her home close to the South Circular, one of the capital’s busiest roads. It was in fact her walking route to school. Study confirmed that exposure to illegal levels of NO² was a key driver of her asthma which saw her admitted to hospital 27 times before a fatal asthma attack in February 2013. The ruling concluded that “There was a recognised failure to reduce the levels of nitrogen dioxide, which possibly contributed to her death”  and “There was also a lack of information given to Ella’s mother that possibly contributed to her death”. While the first point here is predictably disturbing the second is perhaps an even more troubling indictment. The likelihood that this tragic mortality (and others) was completely avoidable has to be faced. It is potentially one of these landmark moments with hugely important precedent consequences in terms of culpability and compensation. As a result of the Coroner’s findings, schools across England have now actively started to investigate air pollution (transport emission) levels in their buildings, playgrounds and surroundings. Ventilation measures and outdoor classrooms designed to keep Covid 19 away, may be letting in an equally sinister health threat to impact on the school environment.

In Antwerp (May 2021) a pressure group “Recht op lucht” (“Right to breathe”), has launched a court case against the City Council and Flemish Government claiming that the authorities have taken insufficient measures to deliver improvement in air quality promised in their clean air policies and their requirement to meet EU standards. In Brussels a citizens group established by concerned parents, Filter Café Filtré, is mobilising city schools (+60) to pressure government on the air quality issue. The demand is to accelerate action on reducing concentration levels of fine particles, based on the conclusion that “too little has changed” since the group’s formation 3 years ago.

The EEA Air Quality Report maintains that policy intervention including European emission legislation is reducing ambient air pollution across the EU, which gives some ground for optimism looking forward. It seems then reasonable to assume that more bicycle use and walking, improved vehicle and fuel standards, increasing take up of electric and hybrid vehicles, reduced commuting and car ownership will continue to fuel a positive trend towards better air quality. Many schools across the Netherlands and Belgium are actively pushing the “STOP” principle for the school run (Stappen-Trappen-Openbaar Vervoer-Personenwagens/Walk-Pedal-Public transport-Private car) relegating private motorised vehicles to the position of last option. Policy making on sustainable mobility in the Brussels Capital Region is further underpinned by the A-S-I approach of Avoid/reduce-Shift/maintain-Improve, where priority is focussed more and more on active travel and public transport. In June 2021 the Regional government committed to excluding diesel-fuelled vehicles completely from Brussels streets by 2030. Here progressively stringent limits are set to reduce all fossil-fuel traffic (including motorbikes and scooters) from 2025-2035.

The Corona virus has clearly had a devastating global impact in terms of mortalities and public health, on economic activity and general way of life. In Europe people’s daily transportation routines were dramatically transformed. Almost with a flick of the switch, experience changed for long periods to home working, low commute levels and reduction in car journeys, but also decrease in public transport use, transfer to active travel, virtually no conference tourism, air transport grounded. Without imagining that these behaviour patterns will completely persist as the pandemic eases, this has shown  that there are valid and potentially acceptable alternatives to business as usual. Particularly in relation to the zero pollution ambition of the EU Green Deal and air quality issues, Covid 19 has provided an important opportunity to review and adjust traffic and transport practices and associated emission levels before simply pressing the reset button. The Covid “condition” has also moved the goalposts somewhat, for instance what effect does poor air quality have on aggravating infection, transmission and health perspectives?

The Brussels Capital Region has been consistently active in identifying air quality as a key challenge from an early stage. From its inception as Regional Authority, it has progressively promoted traffic calming measures, developed a regional cycle network, introduced a Low Emission Zone and Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) kilometre charging, adopted a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan approach (with 30 km limit) and supported car sharing, last mile logistics consolidation, pedestrian area initiatives. Further road charging plans for vehicles entering the city are on the table but contested by the surrounding Flemish and Walloon Regions at the present time. The number of people cycling to work or for leisure in the city has grown exponentially in recent years. The government has taken advantage of the relative traffic calm as a result of the pandemic to reduce vehicle lanes on some major arteries and extend provision of cycle lanes to facilitate non-polluting active travel. In this it is worth remembering that  though the South Circular road in London is a route with intense traffic flows it is not comparable to the canyon like built typology of, for example, the rue de la Loi or the rue Belliard in the centre of Brussels.

Paradoxically then the growth of active travel, combined with proximity to emission source and topography of the built environment means that in a transition phase, while vehicle levels remain high, cyclists as instruments of change are also exposed to a probable health risk on certain routes through the city. The project looks to examine this by measuring user experience (inhalation) and exploring best route options.

Mobility management promoting modal shift from fossil-fuelled vehicles to active travel is seen as a potential game-changer to combat ongoing deterioration in air quality. A transfer from cars and LGVs to cargo bike use is designed to add to an armoury of transformational measures introduced by the Regional authority to reduce transport-related pollution and so contribute to improving ambient air quality. Cairgo Bike is firmly conceived as a trigger to mobilise a structural change in choice of transport mode at the local level where citizens and businesses can join together to help the city move forward.