Making traffic smell sweeter

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Associate Transport Minister Judith Tizard's official car motored through its pollution tests yesterday, but the Government is a long way from determining standards for compulsory vehicle screening.

The minister took the 2003 Ford Fairlane for a check-up at Auckland University's vehicle research laboratory, which will jointly lead a programme to help the Government to set screening standards for warrant of fitness inspections from 2006.

Her car emitted very low levels of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen against the Australian standard.

Its four-litre engine pumped out more carbon dioxide than older but smaller Holden Commodore and Mitsubishi Sigma cars, with possible implications for the Government's fleet-purchasing decisions in terms of its Kyoto Protocol commitments.

But carbon dioxide is not regarded as a local air-quality pollutant.

Up to 20,000 vehicles will be checked between now and the end of the year by more than 10 testing stations and workshops in Auckland and elsewhere. The results will be used to set cut-off points to determine if cars will be allowed to stay on the road.

Cars enlisted in the research programme will be tested randomly for free when presented for warrant checks and their owners will be offered tips about reducing emissions before screening becomes mandatory for all vehicles.

Testing programme manager Andrew Campbell, head of Wellington-based Fuel Technology in a joint-venture pilot with Auckland University's UniServices, said portable machines for testing idling engines could cost between $5000 and $13,000.

But it remained to be seen whether these would be sufficient or even necessary for screening.

The more sophisticated university testing, which spins vehicle wheels through a range of drive cycles to about 100 km/h, will provide readings to compare with the portable machines to determine whether these are up to the task.

Ms Tizard said New Zealand was the only OECD country without an emissions screening programme, despite a Government estimate that about 400 people a year die prematurely from vehicle pollution. In response, petrol and diesel quality were being raised.