Clean Air Zone: Sheffield Council confident there will be little displaced traffic

The scheme charges the most polluting buses, coaches and lorries £50 per day to drive in the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) and £10 a day for taxis and vans. Private vehicles are not included.

Some were concerned affected drivers would avoid the zone by driving into surrounding suburbs instead of paying the fines or upgrading to compliant vehicles.

But William Stewart, director of climate change at the council, said modelling showed this was unlikely to cause too much of a problem.

He said: “Our modelling shows the majority of people applying for support use the city centre or ring road so people who need to use those routes will anyway because they are the most convenient.

“Our modelling did predict what might happen and it showed there would be relatively little displacement for the Clean Air Zone.

“We have hundreds of traffic monitoring cameras across the city which will continue to monitor and check on progress as we roll out the scheme. We have done some modelling but we will only get the real picture after the scheme goes live.”

He said there were a couple of areas drivers might choose alternative routes such as approaching the Parkway and around Shalesmoor roundabout.

Councillor Mazher Iqbal, co-chair of the transport committee, said: “There will be an element of displacement, that is why we are monitoring vehicles and we will bring in a solution if that does happen depending on what type of displacement is taking place.”

For all the details on the CAZ, visit the council’s website here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/campaigns/clean-air-zone-sheffield