Louise Sallé, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: FREDERIC SCHEIBER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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8:13 a.m., July 10, 2023
This Monday, at the end of the morning, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, and the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, receive the results of the consultation on the ZFEs. However, the application of these low-emission zones is not respected and the dates of entry into force of bans on polluting vehicles are constantly postponed.
The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, and the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, receive, this Monday at the end of the morning, the results of the consultation launched last fall on the ZFE with the presidents of the agglomerations. These Low Emission Zones have been set up in a dozen large cities to fight against air pollution, which kills nearly 50,000 people a year. But their application is not respected. The dates of entry into force of the bans on polluting vehicles, established according to the Crit’Air stickers, are constantly postponed, or the checks not carried out… Where are we with this regulation, which 86% of French people disapprove of? after a recent Senate report?
A regularly delayed deadline
Today, eleven metropolises have low emission zones and by 2025, this will be the case for around forty cities. Traffic bans are different from one community to another, which apply them as they wish and for the most part, cars with Crit’Air 5 stickers are now prohibited, even if controls are almost non-existent. “It is the municipal police who can control. But it is a bit theoretical to say that. Because the municipal police, they are not very numerous and they have many other things to do than to control vehicles. The fact that there are automatic controls, which is all the same ideal, is not possible today.The State had initially announced it for the beginning of 2022. Since then, the deadline has regularly delayed. Here, we are talking about the second half of 2024″, specifies Anne-Marie Jean, vice-president of the Metropolis of Strasbourg.
In Greater Paris, more advanced, Crit’Air 4 vehicles are already banned and the ban on Crit’Air 3 should have even come into force this month, but it has been postponed. Lyon has also backtracked on its timetable to avoid the wrath of those who cannot afford to replace their vehicle in 2025. However, and it is national law that requires it, Paris, Lyon and Marseille must prevent the Crit’Air 3 to circulate. For each of them, this represents a third of the car fleet sent for scrapping.