Taxi Driver Online

New measures to reduce taxi emissions in York



MEASURES designed to make York’s taxi fleet more environmentally friendly will be rubber-stamped next week.

Licensing bosses at City of York Council are introducing a new policy which will mean drivers applying for permission to operate cabs or hackney carriages will have to ensure their vehicles meet European emission standards from later this year.

The authority is also planning to bring in a rule which would require all new taxi drivers to go on an eco-driving course before they could be issued with a licence. This would cover areas such as how to drive in a way which uses less fuel and cuts pollution.

The council also hopes to have a policy in place by 2021 which will prevent taxis producing any emissions from their exhausts – as long as the technology is available.

The drive to improve York’s pollution levels recently saw the Leeman Road area designated the city’s third Air Quality Management Area, which will lead to an action plan being compiled to deal with the situation. Poor air quality has been linked to 158 premature deaths in York every year, more than road accidents and obesity combined.

Under the council’s revised taxi policy, two new hackney carriage licences will be issued every six months, with eco-friendly wheelchair-accessible cars being given priority.

Drivers who can run electric or hybrid cars would also be pushed higher up the list than those with standard petrol or diesel vehicles.

The Euro-standards for emissions will be used by the council when determining hackney carriage licence applications from June, and will cover private hire applications from November.

The authority’s gambling, licensing and regulatory committee is set to approve the policy changes next week which will allow officers to add new environmentally friendly vehicles to the list of cars regarded as suitable as technology advances.

Coun Dave Merrett, cabinet member for city strategy, said: “Taxis are in and out of the city centre all the time, and are one of the vehicle groups we need to address in terms of trying to improve air quality in and around this area.

“The environmentally friendly vehicles market is developing and this policy is a more flexible way of handling air-quality issues.”

source: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9654591 ... s_in_York/

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