"London’s toxic air is an outrage and I promised to make cleaning it up one of my top priorities. Today, I’m delivering on that pledge by introducing our first ever Low Emission Bus Zone. I have asked TfL [Transport for London] to remove the oldest, dirtiest buses from our streets and this new route, along with the 11 others we’ll be introducing, will make a big difference to the pollution caused by our public transport system," Khan said as quoted on the website.
Within the new clean zone for Putney High Street, a total of 145 buses will drive on seven routes. This zone is the first out of a 12-zone project to make the air in most polluted areas of London cleaner. The next zone will be introduced in October, whereas 10 others — by 2020.
The introduction of the low emission zone came following a recent City Hall poll, indicating that 90 percent of London inhabitants consider air pollution at a "crisis" level.
According to the statement, Putney High Street exceeded hourly legal levels of nitrogen dioxide concentration on 1,248 occasions in 2016, when under EU rules, the limit cannot be unmet more than 18 times in a year.
