Air quality sees drastic improvement alongside RideLondon route

The annual RideLondon event has coincided with a now rare day of vastly lowered pollution in the UK capital alongside the closed road route.

Flagged by cycling blogger Lastnotlost using data from Londonair.org.uk, the readings shown in the above graph detailing 2016’s event show a remarkable drop in pollution in the Wandsworth to Putney High Street area. The very same trend seems apparent in early data tallied to the main 2017 ride which returned yesterday afternoon.

Alongside the closed roads oxides of nitrogen were just a small fraction of typical levels. Further reductions in Nitric Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide saw the closed road areas experience a low rarely seen. Air pollution is believed to be a contributing factor in some 9,000 deaths in the UK capital alone annually.

According to a story published in The Times today £383,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent by Government ministers on fighting efforts to clean up the UK’s air. Despite this, Britain recently announced plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 following a similar commitment in France.