Tel Aviv, Dan buses vow to reduce air pollution
03/04/2013 02:39
Officials in TA, Dan Bus Company executives decide to establish joint team of experts who will focus on curbing bus emissions.
Israeli buses Photo: Marc Israel Sellem
Municipal officials in Tel Aviv and Dan Bus Company executives have decided to
establish a joint team of experts who will focus on curbing bus
emissions.
Their representatives held a meeting on Sunday, during which
municipal officials presented plans to restrict entrance of old, polluting buses
into bus terminals and into Dan garages – by means of new business license
conditions, the city explained.
During that same meeting, the parties
also decided to establish a joint committee of environmental professionals to
generate a program for reducing air pollution emitted by buses around the
city.
In the future, municipality officials will meet with
representatives from other bus companies that operate in the city, to form
similar expert teams, the city explained.
“An additional step that can
significantly reduce air pollution is the plan to restrict the movement of
polluting vehicles in the city,” Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai
said.
While air quality has improved dramatically in recent years,
transportation remains a large contributor to contamination. For example, a city
report determined that about 80 percent of nitrous oxide and particle emissions
in Tel Aviv-Yafo originate from transportation fumes.
Through various
environmental measures, Tel Aviv- Jaffa has reduced abnormally polluted days
from 51 in 2006 to 17 in 2012, data provided by the city
showed.
Practices introduced have included converting Reading power
station, located in north Tel Aviv, from coal to gas, requiring gas stations to
sell less polluting fuels and encouraging both bicycle and train travel. In
addition, the city has increased its green areas by nearly 50 percent in the
past 10 years and has evacuated the wholesale truck market to outside the city,
the municipality said.