Toulouse: comment on will monitor compliance with the Low Emission Zone
The Low Emission Zone will come into force on March 1 in Toulouse. The most polluting vehicles will be excluded. Automated control is not expected to arrive until 2023.
The Low Emission Zone, in which the most polluting vehicles will be gradually excluded, will come into force on March 1. This area includes the city of Toulouse in its entirety, and the western ring road in particular. It is first of all utility vehicles and heavy goods vehicles with Crit’Air 5 sticker which will be prohibited, from March 2022. In September 2022, the same vehicles with Crit’Air 4 sticker will no longer be able to circulate in the ZFE. In January 2023, Crit’Air 4 and 5 cars and two-wheelers will be added. And in January 2024, it will be the turn of Crit’Air 3 cars and two-wheelers.
Camera checks in 2023
“To control the correct application of the measure, automated controls by cameras will be put in place by the State during 2023 according to François Chollet, vice-president of Toulouse Métropole. The camera will record the registration, and will transmit a fine of 68 € for a car, and 135 € for a heavy goods vehicle, in the event of an infringement. The police and gendarmerie forces could also fine a vehicle that is not allowed to drive in the ZFE. The automated license plate reading system (LAPI), which will be used in Toulouse by mid-2022 to fine motorists who have not paid for their paid parking, cannot be used to check compliance with the ZFE, according to François Chollet. The first months of entry into force of the ZFE will be used for education, with little or no verbalization involved.
45,000 excessively polluting vehicles excluded from the ZFE in 2024
According to Toulouse Métropole, the ZFE will exclude 16% of the rolling stock in 2024, i.e. between 45,000 and 47,000 vehicles deemed to be too polluting.
The French State, condemned by Europe for its insufficient level of action against air pollution, has made the establishment of an EPZ compulsory in more than forty cities in France.
The Crit’Air sticker is compulsory, and must be affixed inside the vehicle, front facing outwards, on the lower right part of the windshield, or on the fork of the motorized two-wheeler, so as to be visible to enforcement officers.