The non-standard, old vehicles and excessive number of motorcycles are the primary contributors to Tehran’s air pollution, which snuffs out the lives of nearly 5 million people each year,” said Mehrdad Baouj-Lahouti, lawmaker and vice president of Majlis (Parliament) environment and sustainable development committee.
While air pollution “has its own reasons” across the world, but in Tehran the main cause for 80% of the pollution is pollutant emissions from urban transport.
It was expected that as per a Majlis plan public transport would constitute 75% of the vehicles in the capital’s transport system and the remaining 25% would comprise personal vehicles; however, at present the figures are reversed, and in fact the number of private vehicles are increasing, Bahouj-Lahouti said.
There are 8000 Paykan taxis still plying in the capital which are non-standard and inadequate to transport city passengers, the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA) reported.
“Also by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2006-2011), all vehicles were supposed to comply with Euro 4 Standard, and enter the Euro 5 Standard phase; unfortunately, we still remain in the Euro 2 Standard phase,” he observed.
He also criticized the “sale of daily traffic permits” by the Tehran Municipality (TM) and said, “We should encourage people to use public transportation including the subways. Only 6% of the total urban passengers are now commuting by the underground metro.” For better air quality the number of metro users should increases to 30%, he added.
Further, “obsolete public vehicles which raises concerns about their safety” is among the most important reasons for people’s unwillingness to reduce private vehicle use.
