Air Quality, Traffic Volume and Lessons Learnt in a Covid Era

"2020 was supposed to be the year of the Clean Air Zone (CAZ)" was the opening sentence of a news article I read this week, and indeed it was. The article, a balanced piece highlighting the changes, politics and even the legal elements of how those responsible for planning our Transport networks, and encouraging the shift to a lower carbon world, were due to be implementing a national CAZ/LEZ network across the United Kingdom.

We are all living in a different world than we were 6 months ago, and yet another article from a month ago titled "No going back" which summarises some recent research done by the Transport & Environment (T&E) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA). The study demonstrates overwhelming support from the public to avoid going back to pre-COVID levels of pollution in our towns and cities. Over two thirds of respondents from across Europe agreed that "cities must take effective measures to protect citizens from air pollution, even if it means preventing polluting cars from entering city centres to protect clean air". Additional studies in recent months have began to draw connections between Air Quality and COVID, for example in the Netherlands, a study compared air quality readings from 355 municipalities in the country, including data on nitrogen dioxide, sulfur-dioxide, and fine particulate matter. The team found that areas that had even slightly higher pollutant levels tended to have more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

If you had asked anyone in the industry in early 2019 where the next ANPR supported/enforced (depending on your political view) network of towns and cities in a major european country would be, the clear answer would have been the UK with several cities scheduled to go-live before the end of that year.

Fast forward to today, and actually the only Nationwide ANPR LEZ system which has been deployed and operational, infact the first true Nationwide LEZ ANPR Enforcement system, has been deployed in Denmark and is operating across 5 separate towns and cities. Those UK cities which were due to go-live have been delayed, and now caught up in the Covid impact with the business cases being reviewed, local business impact being re-considered and traffic patterns being analysed as an consequence of Covid.

What lessons can the UK, and others, learn from their Danish counterparts with respect to the implementation of these complex systems in a challenging political and ever-changing world? A few examples which have impressed me as my team have worked alongside the Danish client, and our superb partners are:

1. Ownership - the client team at Sund & Baelt (S&B) have absolute clarity of ownership of the challenges, and ensuring the outcomes are delivered. Milestones are set and met - no "ifs" or "buts"...... getting the work done to the quality needed is paramount! I have seen this culture proliferate top-down from the Steering Committees that I have the privilege of sitting on, down to the Project Workstream meetings between the Subject Matter Experts across the Supply Chain.
2. Focus - a strong sense of focus on their own intent and the impact that the project will have on the Danish environment. We live in an uncertain time and difficult decisions are being taken across Government across the globe however I do believe the Danes are leading the way on the importance of the Climate Change and Environmental protection - they are regularly at the top of the table in the Climate Change Performance Index along with their neighbours in Sweden. This shows throughout this project and the initial results from the system highlight the importance of the continued encouragement for transition to cleaner vehicles and mobility methods.
3. Challenge and Selection - the methodology to select the suppliers for the project was extensive and thorough. Inviting companies from across the globe to participate in such a prestigious project will always attract the Crème de la crème from the marketplace and the high standards needed for this project meant the bar was high. Understanding and close coupling supplier obligations to the business and operational needs for S&B ensures that only the highest performing, proven and robust solutions would be considered - "good enough" is not a phrase found in this project. Bringing innovation whilst challenging suppliers to push the boundaries of their solutions and doing it in a beautiful balance of robustness and friendliness meant that all of the supply chain did some of their best work in such a difficult time where we were all adapting to "new normal". The innovation that some of the Neology team as well as the Parktrade team brought throughout this project will stick with me for many years to come.
4. Customer Journey - finally and by no means least....... throughout the whole project, the Customer Journey was at the forefront of mind. How can we make it easier, more intuitive for our road users to understand the impact? Transparency of the scheme - how do we ensure fairness? How do we eradicate errors from the system to ensure a positive impression? Are we deploying the solutions in a way that will limit impact on the road users to minimise delays. There were so many facets to this element of the project but it was very clear that the S&B team thought deeply about their customers as well as the Environmental impact to ensure the ultimate success of the scheme, which is as much about Education as Enforcement.

In summary - there are no technological challenges to deployment of highly efficient solutions that support the transition to a lower carbon future. COVID or not, Air Quality and the impact that it has on our lives, environment and our children's lives means I am one of the 66%+ that believe "cities must take effective measures to protect citizens from air pollution, even if it means preventing polluting cars from entering city centres to protect clean air". If in doubt - ask S&B - I am sure they will become the reference point for years to come!