Ehealthy environment and climate transition on the one hand, acceptability and social justice on the other. The question of low emission zones (ZFE) concentrates one of the major political questions of our time, one of the most complex and also one of the most explosive. Introduced in 2019 by the mobility orientation law, ZFEs aim to limit or even ban the circulation of the most polluting vehicles in the heart of cities.
In addition to the fight against CO2it is a question of combating the health scourge represented by exhaust gases: atmospheric pollution causes 48,000 premature deaths each year in France and, according to a 2016 study, exposure to fine particles can reduce life expectancy. two-year life in the most polluted cities.
Thirteen cities, including Paris, have delimited a ZFE and adopted its statute. By 2025, 43 cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants must have done so. Since the procedures are entrusted to local authorities, the implementation of this innovation, which presupposes drastic changes in daily living habits, is disparate, as indicated by the survey of the World. The calendar, such as the application times or the compensation measures vary according to the metropolis.
Welcome, this flexibility however generates inconsistencies and inequalities which call for information efforts and a policy of harmonization and compensation. Why is aid for the purchase of non-polluting vehicles reserved for residents of the area concerned, while residents of the outskirts, who are often less well off and more dependent on their vehicle, are not entitled to it?
The temptation of transgression
The motorists of Nice, whose city is constantly flown over by planes, or the people of Rouen, surrounded by polluting industries, do not understand why they are the only ones to have restrictive measures imposed on them. The sharp rise in the price of vehicles, even second-hand ones, makes it even more difficult to implement a policy that requires the replacement of a large part of the vehicle fleet. While the most well-off households have no problem accessing the new compliant models, the less well-off are struggling to replace their small diesel city car.
The implementation of ZFEs, which is absolutely essential and at the same time highly sensitive, requires information and financial support efforts for individuals and professionals alike, which is too often lacking. It must be associated with a policy of densification, scheduling and increasing the capacity of public transport and urban development favoring non-polluting travel.
While the new regulations, often accompanied by exceptions in the evening or on weekends or derogations for small riders, are generally applied with flexibility, manifestations of dissatisfaction have already been observed. Forced car users are tempted by transgression. What will happen when, as seems inevitable, automated controls are introduced?
Local elected officials, the first recipients of discontent linked to transport, are right to criticize the government, paralyzed by the precedent of the “yellow vests”, its lack of involvement and its pusillanimity. If the organization of EPZs is a matter of local politics, it is up to the State to have the courage to drive the immense changes imposed by the climate catastrophe and to remedy the injustices they bring to light.