Renault has revealed the results of a survey which found that a majority of drivers would change their commuting habits if it would make for an improvement in air quality and a reduction in congestion outside schools. The survey is from the UK, but it seems likely that similar attitudes would prevail here in Ireland too.
Many schools located in areas of high pollution
57 per cent said that if their commuting route involved passing by a school, and there was an alternative route, they'd take the alternative to reduce pollution and congestion. The school run is being singled out as a major contributor to localised air pollution, especially the dirty habit of drivers letting their engines idle outside the school. According to the Renault UK reports, 8,500 schools, nurseries and colleges in England, Scotland, and Wales are located in areas with dangerously high levels of pollution.
To help combat that, Renault UK has started up a "Be Mindful, Don't Idle" campaign, hence the survey. That survey also showed that a further 25 per cent of motorists were unsure as to whether they would be willing to take a different route to avoid getting stuck in traffic outside a school. Of those drivers whose regular commute does involve driving by a school, more than a third (37 per cent) said that they're aware of an alternative available to them that they could take.
Idling outside school leading to higher NOX emissions
Another study, not carried out by Renault but quoted in its report, found that he implementation of School Streets schemes (in which roads surrounding schools are closed off to vehicles in the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up) in London reduced nitrogen dioxide by up to 23 per cent during the morning school run. Nitrogen dioxide - NOX - is the gas behind the entire diesel engine scandal and has been shown to be harmful to health.
Despite the improvement in air quality that could be achieved through such a detour, 62 per cent of drivers who had an alternate route to avoid a school said they don't take it as it adds more time to their journey. At the same time, 39 per cent explained the reason for not doing so was because they do a set route on their commute, and one in four blamed the state of the road and its poor condition.
Positive that many say they might change
You want some more stats? OK, how about this? An idling engine contributes the equivalent of 150 party balloons-worth of emissions unnecessarily into the atmosphere every minute. Renault found idling during the school drop-off and pick-up is more common in urban areas - with 50.1 per cent admitting to doing it - compared to 12 per cent in rural locations. More than 28 per cent of people of those who admitted to idling said they leave their engines running for 6-10 minutes.
Tom Barker, Electrification Manager, Renault UK, said: "It's incredibly positive that so many drivers say they would be willing to change their regular route to help reduce emissions outside of schools. However, the fact that a large number wouldn't reroute, shows that we still have some way to go in helping people understand the benefits that this could have. If we could reduce the number of vehicles sitting outside schools in idling traffic by taking a detour, this could really help bring down the amounts of pollutants that children are breathing in."
Not surprisingly, Renault is reminding drivers that, right now, it's the leading maker of electric cars in Europe, with the all-electric Zoe selling very strongly across the EU (and UK).