Bridge Tolls

The new SNP government has announced plans to abolish the tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges.  Tolls became a political hot potato during the Dunfermline by-election when plans for a higher toll on the Forth Road Bridge at peak times were strongly criticised by candidates.  The SNP has described the abolition as an issue of fairness – Scotland has only 2 tolled road bridges and both lie between Fife and Edinburgh. 

Fifers argue that this limits their opportunities to seek employment in Edinburgh, a view supported by a recent study by Highlands and Islands Enterprise which found that  the abolition of tolls on the Skye Bridge boosted the local economy by £100m and helped young people stay in the area by making it affordable for them to travel to work.

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A new approach to thinking about air pollution…

When we think about air pollution from vehicles, we tend to exclusively think about exhaust fumes. However, new research from TRL suggests that non-exhaust pollution should also be considered when looking at ‘greening’ the fleet.

Dust caused by the wear and tear of tyres, brakes and the road surface can also effect air quality and health, but is a little discussed area. Improved materials, on the spot particle collection and destruction, improved vehicle design as well as road and vehicles cleaning are just some of the ways suggested to reduce this type of pollution. More research is needed, but with other pressing car design issues it is unlikely this issue will come to the fore in the near future. However, we could soon be encouraged to wash our vehicles more frequently to help reduce this different, but prevalent form of road vehicle pollution.

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Call for better biker helmet standards…

Improved biker hemet design is needed according to new TRL research. Improved helmet design is expected to increase protection by more than 60% during head-on and side-on biker collisions and if all riders wore hemets with this level of safety performance it was predicted that up to 100 lives could be saved in the UK (Mellor et al, 2007).

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