The Guardian

Want to cut air pollution? Get rid of your car | John Vidal

Governments must accept the stark fact that cars must be removed from the street altogether
A car-free day in Brussels on 16 September Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Images

I write this from St Martin’s, one of the largest of the Isles of Scilly, where in five days spent among its 120-odd inhabitants I have seen only three moving cars, two tractors and a few boats. With 28 miles of Atlantic ocean in one direction between it and Cornwall, and just a few rocks before the Canadian coastline in the other, St Martin’s has some of the cleanest air in the world.

My landlord, Andrew, sees the benefits. Both his grandparents are 92 and still active, no one he knows has asthma, and lung and

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