Only partially… for now. Full ban coming in 2020.
Authorities in Spain have decided that they’re going to ban older vehicles from the centre of Madrid, in an attempt to meaningfully reduce the level of air pollution by a targeted 40%. The ban will encompass all petrol-powered vehicles built before 2000, as well as diesel vehicles built before 2006.
In essence, the system restricts heavy-polluting vehicles from clogging up road networks and gassing up town centres. The Spanish intend to do this by ‘labelling’ vehicles as either eco-friendly or otherwise. Cars with eco tags (like Nissan Leaf EVs or BMW i3 RE-EVs) will be able to drive into Madrid Central without issue, and park in public parking spaces. Polluting vehicles (without a tag) will be fined €90 should they do the same, as they can only come into the city centre if they’d previously registered with the authorities to do so, and have access to private parking.
This is of course the first step in a total ban on internal-combustion vehicles in Madrid – they say that’ll come into effect in 2020. In the meantime, all entry & exit points of the city are clearly marked with road markings & signage, and monitored by CCTV cameras.
Research into whether clean-air zones are effective have returned various results. A study of low-emission zones in Germany found reductions in particular matter (PM) of up to 9%, whereas research in London suggested that within the first 5-years, a clean-air zone can reduce PM by between 2.5% and 3.1%. However, a study in the Netherlands revealed no significant differences, though this was attributed to loose legislation & restrictions enforcing & restricting vehicles into the zone.
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