Bad air day

If 4000 premature deaths a year are due to air pollution from traffic, which is indeed the case, then traffic officials and governments should be accounable for measures that damage air quality. Sitting outside a cafe in Paris as I write this, I’m forced to breathe air that is more heavily polluted because of lights that stop traffic unnecessarily, prevent it from filtering on opportunity, and encourage frustrated drivers to accelerate away, boosting air pollution with an added helping of noise pollution. No-one’s a winner on over-regulated roads, and it’s no better in Paris than in London. Traffic officials and policymakers the world over should face trial for the evil they bring at public cost and public expense.