Toulouse: the ZFE at a standstill
Postponement for the approximately 500,000 vehicles affected today by the ban on driving in the ZFE in 2024. The Climate Resilience law requires an impact study, which has not been carried out, and the signing of the order by the President of the Metropolis . We are waiting for a government decree which raises the legal risk.
Signs indicating entry into the ZFE have been unveiled at several city entrances, but the low-emission zone has still not been implemented in 2021, as planned by Toulouse Métropole.
“It was to be launched in September, confirms François Chollet, but we are facing a legal obstacle: the Climate Réilience law of August 22 provides for the signing of the decree by the president of the metropolis and not by the three mayors concerned (Toulouse , Tournefeuille and Colomiers), and an impact study is requested, adds the vice-president of Toulouse Métropole in charge of the ZFE, the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili announces a decree that will confirm the ZFE from a legal point of view “.
The elected representative therefore does not risk indicating a date for the signing of the decree and does not exclude a “delay” in the timetable for the gradual implementation of the measures.
Ignorance and quarrel over numbers
Beyond this stagnation, which will undoubtedly only be temporary, questions remain unanswered while 60% of French people admit “not knowing what an EPZ is” (Harris Institute survey for the National Council of Professions in France). ‘car).
The Toulouse ZFE thus provides that in 2024, Crit’air 3, 4, 5 and unclassified, that is to say gasoline vehicles prior to 2006 and diesel vehicles prior to 2011, will be banned from driving in this area. inside the ring road and Arc-en-Ciel ring road (see map). In 2020, according to the SDES (data and statistical studies service of the Ministry of Ecological Transition), more than a third (38.8%) of the 409,120 private vehicles in Toulouse Métropole and almost half (44.8%) %) of the 574,115 vehicles of neighboring intercommunalities (less than 20 km from the ZFE) banned from driving in the ZFE in 2024. That is 420,000 vehicles, and nearly 500,000 if we include utility vehicles and heavy goods vehicles.
“Natural” renewal
François Chollet gives lower figures: His services in the metropolis explain: the control of license plates in eight test zones of the metropolis made it possible to assess the actual rolling stock and taking into account “natural renewal” (vehicles replaced by newer ones) by 2024.
According to Citepa (Interprofessional Technical Center for the Study of Atmospheric Pollution), the share of these polluting vehicles (40% in 2020 nationally) would thus “naturally” drop to only 16% of vehicles. An extrapolation that will be difficult to convince those who will be denied access to the ZFE in 2024.