London Heathrow Airport is expanding. Should it be?

this video was sponsored by Skillshare get two months of free access to thousands of courses by visiting the link in the description in June 2019 Heathrow Airport in London unveiled its plan to add a third runway northwest of the two existing runways this unveiling came about a year after the House of Commons approved the third runway proposal and that came after years of protests outside the box ideas lawsuits and schemes a third Heathrow runway was first proposed in a runway capacity study 29 years ago why is much back and forth over adding a new runway to the second busiest airport in the world for international travelers and the largest airport and one of the most important cities on the planet the answer is basic land use planning really airports like Heathrow are hemmed in by urban development on all sides and any changed the airport directly affect those who live and work near the airport the effects can be pretty significant too we're talking noise air pollution and traffic how do cities balance their growing need for airports with the on-the-ground realities of land use planning let's go find out why does he throw need to expand the very first sentence in the Heathrow expansion plan says it all Britain is falling behind in the global race to win business with emerging markets in distant parts of the world it needs at least one new runway in the Southeast of England before 2030 the report doesn't say exactly what would happen if they don't get the runway before 2030 but it does sound serious the overall point here is somewhat persuasive the economy is increasingly global in direct flights to many different nations and cities can solidify ties and encourage business there's also a competition factor London is competing for business and trade with the likes of Paris Amsterdam and Frankfurt those airports have an average capacity of 700 thousand flights per year an expanded heathyr would have capacity for seven hundred and forty thousand flights just a quick note here but if you want a great background on the topic of Heathrow expansion I recommend Jai Foreman's video on this very topic he's way funnier than me too so that's nice I've linked in the description below and also we're all just flying more now than ever before Airlines flew 4.3 billion passengers in 2018 up from 3.1 billion passengers just five years before demand is growing rapidly in more runway as we need it to accommodate all of those fly but why does he throw need to be the one growing London is a weirdly high number of airports including Gatwick Stansted Luton and City why not just add a runway in one of those places or build a new airport somewhere else all of those options have been studied proposals for a new airport require a lot of vacant land and there just isn't that much close enough to central London to be convenient and Gatwick the second largest airport in London is more of a leisure travel Airport not a business and international travel airport like Heathrow as economic development is the primary objective for this expansion Heathrow makes the most sense this means that the UK needs to figure out how to wedge another runway into this area the proposal has been politically divisive their plan is to mitigate as many of the negative effects of the airport expansion as they can to placate the local residents this means addressing issues like noise air pollution and traffic so let's go through each of them starting with noise noise is actually the biggest environmental concern facing new airport expansion the issue alone isn't enough to slow or stop new projects there are two related problems associated with noise first people don't like hearing loud planes especially when they're trying to sleep it sucks this nuisance leads to the second concern property values homes in noisier areas sell for less than they would if they were in less noisy areas we can visualize this using what are called noise contours these are lines on a map that showed noise levels for given zones around a noise source it's how planners can tell who will be affected by the construction or expansion of a highway factory Airport or any use that generates a lot of noise one study found that US homes located in a 55 decibel noise contour with sell for 10 to 12 percent less if it was located in a 75 decibel noise contour everything else held constant a $200,000 home would be worth only a hundred and eighty thousand dollars in a noisier area that means if an airport expands it could be costing nearby a residence sleep sanity and a big chunk of their home value right ether was actually claiming the opposite will happen it's saying that the expanded airport will actually get quieter there's a fair amount of selective editing and glossing over with this report but this is a case where it may actually be correct it has little to do with the airport itself but more to do with the airplanes and flight paths airplanes have been getting quieter in the last 40 years new airplanes take advantage of technologies to create designs that reduce engine noise planes like the Boeing 787 and Airbus 380 are significantly quieter than their predecessors as new aircraft replace old ones the overall noise goes down there are other ways to reduce airport noise flight paths can be redesigned to avoid populated areas flight paths can also be tightened up and narrowed so all planes fly along the exact same line reducing the number of homes affected by the noise landing approaches can be made steeper so the planes are higher for a longer Heathrow is using all of these techniques and more they are requiring aircraft a touchdown 700 meters further down the runway to put the noisy landing further from residents the reason the new runway is offset from the original two is to allow planes to fly higher over West London reducing the noise impacts to those residents there even allocating 550 million pounds to funding noise insulation for impacted homes Keys row has already been doing some of these things and claims it has reduced noise around the airport tenfold since the 1970s despite twice as many flights other studies backup Heathrow's claim one study of a possible expansion to Chicago O'Hare Airport suggests that property values may rise a total 285 million dollars in the area around O'Hare after the expansion due in part to the airport becoming much quieter another major concern for expanding an airport like Heathrow is emissions both in the local and global scale the UK has set aggressive emission reduction targets and according to one projection if flying continues to increase in popularity it will contribute all of the UK's allotted 2050 emissions all of their forms of emissions would have to be zeroed out to make room for air travel this is one of the most effective arguments Heathrow expansion opponents have used to slow or stop the project in the past their campaigns aim to stigmatize flying on Climate rounds and use the Heathrow runway as a litmus test for politicians commitment to the environment in the era of easy videoconferencing why do we need to be flying so much more the delightfully named direct action protest group plain stupid even snuck onto Heathrow's North runway in protest of the expansion leading to the cancellation of 25 flights they did so to bring attention to the negative environmental impacts of Heath expansion so that's the global environmental argument against Heathrow expansion but we're talking about land use here so what's the local angle how many of those emissions are going to be experienced as local air pollution for those living near the airport that's actually difficult to measure one study found that in Hong Kong aircraft were a significant contributor to local carbon monoxide and particulate matter so adding a runway and more flights could very well make local air pollution worse the same study found that this may not be the case everywhere though at LAX ground transportation meaning cars was the greatest single source of emissions around the airport and the increase in cars associated with an expansion would be a greater air pollution source than the planes themselves the LAX example brings up another big problem associated with airport expansion traffic airports are often located far from an urban center when you add a runway you add flights and you add traffic then those long trips are often clogging up local highways it makes sense to put airports in remote areas like Denver's Airport far from civilization or Japan's airports on land fill in various bodies of water but this makes them harder to get to than say an urban railway station and lots of people will be driving to get there airport expansions can make traffic on nearby freeways worse than they were before many airports have rail connections that mitigate this problem somewhat but traffic is an area where the Heathrow plan is really trying to evade criticism because there are some obvious criticisms this plan goes out of its way to remind everyone that the airport has a large bus station Express Airport rail link and the only London Airport with an underground connection they make the claim that 70% of the UK population will be within three hours of Heathrow on public transit but their plan will almost certainly make traffic worse in the short term and probably in the long term as well there are four major motorways within 10 miles of Heathrow the m3 m4 and 25 and m4 t the airport's right near the crossroads of the m25 and m4 the plan calls for moving the m25 150 meters to the west and lowering it so the new runway can go over the top this change will no doubt cause severe disruption for those residents living nearby the new runway will likely attract more people arriving to the airport by car and the Heathrow plan hints at this the plan calls for adding a 24,000 car parking garage and another 20 mm car parking critics that seized upon these garages as proof that the plan will make traffic worse and make it harder for the UK to meet its aggressive emissions reduction targets okay so we've gone through all of the major criticisms of airport expansion noise emissions in traffic where does that leave us how should we feel about expanding airports like Heathrow clearly in the UK the argument for economic development and expansion one out the thought of being left behind by other European cities was just too much to bear and the government was willing to spend lots of money to mitigate all of the problems associated with expansion that said there's still cost that can't be fixed with money hundreds of homes will be demolished and neighborhoods will be wiped off the map residents will receive compensation but they're not getting to keep their homes I also find the climate argument compelling we are in a climate emergency and adding 700 flights per day to London doesn't seem like a great way to reduce emissions in London is only one City Airport expansions are occurring all over the world in a time when we should really be reducing our air travel our construction projects are pointing us in a different direction we can only hope that we will come to our senses and hop on Skype or a train instead so if you've seen these ads before you know that I had a new baby a while back he's nearly four months old now between him my day job is a PhD candidate and this YouTube channel I'm pretty busy I'm guessing you're probably busy too I used youtuber Thomas Frank's productivity masterclass over on Skillshare to stay on top of everything it's something I desperately need as I'm often short on sleep and have a long to-do list he's helped me with task management calendars note-taking and more with his help I'm keeping myself organized and producing videos this is one of the many high-quality courses available at Skillshare the great thing about skill shares they have thousands of classes and everything from art interpretation to design 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Channel: City Beautiful

Views: 301,775

Keywords: city planning, town planning, urban planning, urban design, airport, airport expansion, london, heathrow airport, chicago ohare, noise contours, air pollution, quieter airplanes, airport land use, airport traffic

Id: QN5Rnu0-RhE

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 07 2019