Diesel to Electric Switch for Buses Dropped NOx Levels by a Third

The switch from diesel to electric buses and reducing deliveries to the street’s hundreds of shops is said to be behind the fall in nitrogen dioxide levels. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has welcomed the clean-up but said there is still a long way to go until the street meets legal air quality levels. He said: “The improvement in Oxford Street’s air quality is welcome news and testament to the changes that we have been making not only in this area, but to the entire bus and taxi fleet in London. “This is only the beginning and there’s still a lot more work to be done in the battle against London’s toxic air.”

Around 262 buses travel down the busy route every hour and Transport for London have ensured 70 per cent of vehicles either have electric or greener engines. Readings taken by King’s College London and London Air monitors show nitrogen dioxide released by vehicles was 135 micrograms per cubic metre of air in 2015, compared to 86 micrograms per cubic metre in 2016 - a drop of around 30 percent. The street is still in breach of EU regulations on the number of hours each year it can surpass pollution levels, but it is making significant progress. In 2015 safe pollution levels were breached for 1391 hours, and in 2016 this dropped to 163 hours - a decrease of 88 per cent. Tim Baker from the Environmental Research Group at King’s College London said: "The data for Oxford Street for 2016 is still provisional and needs to be analysed very carefully to determine exactly which changes had an impact and when.

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