How to reduce motorway pollution

[Betty Blue]

Am involved in a project to reduce air pollution in our local vicinity, a stretch of motorway running through the borough since the late 60's, which has caused a great deal of health problems and early related deaths. It is thought that the air quality here is responsible for 75 deaths per year, second only to those deaths which are smoking related. It is clearly a huge problem which the government are loathe to deal with.

I am now pretty certain that my childhood asthma (which nearly killed me many times as a small child) is due to my early years living in 'the fallout zone' of air pollution for the west way (west cross route). We lived a couple of hundred meters from the raised motorway in a street directly below it.


Would like some genuis imput on finding solutions, possibly some green architectural idea's/designs. Possibly some future tech idea's.

The organisation we have set up (signing constitution today) plan to write proposals for funding, we want to purchase hand held particulate monitors to gain precise knowledge of where this pollution is worst. We want to introduce new programs to reduce the air pollution and raise awareness on a local and national level.


There have been several ideas so far put forwards to the local council and to the west way trust all which have been waved away and swept under the carpet. Quite simply they are not interested in putting any money towards addressing the issues.

Now lots of pressure is being put on the govt to do something about the air pollution which is in contravention of the EU directives. The London Mayor has created a fund for local orbs to apply to specifically to reduce/address air pollution. We plan to tap into this fund even though we have little backing from the powers that be (which actually should't be-but thats another story).

So type C experts and creative talented... please push forward your ideas!!!

This is the area we are dealing with...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/W...2!3m1!1s0x4876101f1cc3fc9d:0xfe067b99a9d84807

 

[INTP]

Better public transportation is the obvious choice. Other than that there isnt much you can do except build a tunnel, which filters the gas. Or large walls around the motorway which has built in filtering and fans pushing air to the filters(and solar panels to get at least some if not all electricity for the fans). Tunnel would give better results tho, but its a huge investment. Planting a forest around the motorway would help a bit, but it would take years for the trees to grow enough to be any good.

edit. i just looked the map and seems like forest isnt an option :/

 

[Betty Blue]

Better public transportation is the obvious choice. Other than that there isnt much you can do except build a tunnel, which filters the gas. Or large walls around the motorway which has built in filtering and fans pushing air to the filters(and solar panels to get at least some if not all electricity for the fans). Tunnel would give better results tho, but its a huge investment. Planting a forest around the motorway would help a bit, but it would take years for the trees to grow enough to be any good.

edit. i just looked the map and seems like forest isnt an option :/

Apparently there is a future plan to have a tunnel, the land as is, is held in trust for the benefit of the local community is reparation for the Raised motorway being put there... tearing through streets of houses and causing illegal levels of pollution.

Initially the land beneath the structure was wasteland and worthless, it has been turned around over the past 44 years and in the current climate is worth a great deal. The current trust are commercialising and ridding themselves of all the community orgs which fought for the land to be used for the benefit of the community.

The upshot is that once the community has nothing left, the tunnel can be built, the west way structure can be taken down and the land will be worth billions... aka land grab.

However while this (long) battle is being fought we still have crazy time with air pollution, I am liaising with a couple of universities and air quality orgs and hope to be able to purchase some hand held particulate monitors to may the actual levels of pollution. In the north of Kensington, to the surprise of many, it is incredibly poor and polluted. Because the south of the borough is So Sooo rich, it still tops the charts as the Richest borough in the u.k, perhaps the world.

However when the council have stationed their monitors they have done so roadside in the south of the borough and in a little green square uphill approx 3/4 a mile from the west way in the north of the borough. This ofc squews results on their pollution models and leaves little cash. It's a familiar story.

So the idea is our little org manages to attain the hand held particular monitors and with the experts at kings college and organisations like mapping for change we take our own readings and map the real levels of pollution.

However this is just part of a larger picture. Once we have this data we need to have a plan of action. It's good to be prepared... I know that architecture today incorporates self sustainability and greenery. The questions is how do we deal with the current levels of pollution? The guestimates are that it is twice the legal limit and as such will be killing 75 people per year. An issues that is sorely in need of a great deal of attention.

The EU is putting a lot of pressure on meeting reduction level targets and kensington and chelsea council are not interested in the least. Greening the motorway would (could, it's another hypothetical) contribute to reducing the levels approx 20% of what is needed, putting in a 20mph speed limit would further decrease the pollution levels...

I would really love to hear about any new tech ideas surrounding how to go about achieving the reduction, as we most likely have at least 20 more years of this.

Also, thanks for replying, please do link anything that might be of interest.

 

[Tellenbach]

A fleet of 20 giant blimps that can carry several hundred thousand gallons of water to sprinkle over the stretch of road and surrounding areas once a day or just a rotating sprinkler system (I've seen sprinklers spray water a good 50 feet into the air.) surrounding the problem areas.

If you have the budget, giant vacuum hoses mounted on blimps.

 

[Betty Blue]

A fleet of 20 giant blimps that can carry several hundred thousand gallons of water to sprinkle over the stretch of road and surrounding areas once a day or just a rotating sprinkler system (I've seen sprinklers spray water a good 50 feet into the air.) surrounding the problem areas.

If you have the budget, giant vacuum hoses mounted on blimps.

Hey, I'm not up on this, I just keep finding zeppelins where i search, do you have a relevant link? Thank e

 

[Tellenbach]

Giant Blimps Could Rain Over Wildfires

Engineers at the company propose designing and building a 1,000-foot-long airship that could carry about 264,000 gallons of water — nearly 100 times the capacity of the C-130 transport planes currently in use by the U.S. Forest Service.

An array of nozzles slung underneath the dirigible would control the flow of water and could drop nearly 53,000 gallons per hour. Water cannons also mounted underneath could provide targeted water delivery to particular

Ok, it may not be available yet, but it's something to keep in mind, plus it's way cool.

 

[BlueScreen]

Buy everyone a Tesla S.