Beginning of the sling in Toulouse on the Crit’Air thumbnails
The mayor of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudenc fears a return of the yellow vests. It calls for “harmonization” of low-emission zones by 2024.
From our correspondent in Toulouse, Stephane Thepot
Published on
– Modified
LThe memory of the demonstrations every Saturday in the pink city is still very present in the mind of Jean-Luc Moudenc. With inflation, rising energy prices and the banning of older diesel vehicles in EPZs (low emission zones), the mayor (ex-LR) of Toulouse evokes a “social pot that is bubbling” throughout the country. “We must avoid a second episode of yellow vests,” says Moudenc.
Since 1uh January, cars classified Crit’Air 4 and 5 are no longer allowed to leave the ring road in Toulouse, under penalty of a fine of 68 euros (135 euros for utility vehicles). But the mayor of the city made it known during his vows to the press that he was not working on the hunt for motorists. “I will not give any instructions to the municipal police to verbalize in the next 18 months. I consider that it is up to the state to carry out the checks,” he said. In Nice, an assistant to Christian Estrosi said on the antenna of France Bleu that he was on the same line. The beginnings of a wind of revolt from local elected officials who are nevertheless reputed to be close to Emmanuel Macron and the government?
Many proposals
The mayor of Toulouse assures that he has not consulted with his Nice counterpart and sees himself more as a “whistleblower”. Vice-president of Urban France, Jean-Luc Moudenc met Christophe Béchu at the end of October. He is impatiently awaiting the appointment of an interministerial delegate promised to elected officials from large cities by the Minister for Ecological Transition. To date, 11 of the 22 metropolises grouped together within urban France have already delimited a ZFE perimeter. By 2025, 43 agglomerations with more than 150,000 inhabitants will be affected. For the Toulouse elected official, the government must regain control and “harmonize” criteria which vary from one city to another. In Perpignan, Louis Aliot (RN) had a narrow majority adopt a motion refusing to establish an agglomeration-wide EPZ (36 municipalities).
READ ALSOToulouse soon third city of France? What will change (or not)On behalf of urban France, Jean-Luc Moudenc calls for a doubling of state aid to acquire a new vehicle and the establishment of a “one-stop shop” assigned to metropolises. In Occitania, the region has set up its own “mobility eco-cheque” which can reach 5,000 euros, primarily targeting craftsmen affected since March 2022 by the ban on the most polluting diesel utility vehicles. Toulouse Métropole, for its part, offers a complex system of aid that can be combined with that of the State, for professionals and individuals, subject to means testing. They are reserved for the inhabitants of 37 municipalities who are only partially affected by the entire urban area of Toulouse. The city has also granted many variants, especially for market gardeners from the department and the region who come twice a week to sell their fruit and vegetables at the organic market behind the Capitol with their old vans. Finally, “little riders” can request a derogation to enter Toulouse once a week, i.e. 52 days a year, also on the model of a “pass” in force in the Lyon conurbation.
Parking Hunt
The list of derogations is such that the ZFE remains to this day largely virtual. The prefecture said that it had drawn up only ten reports since the beginning of the year during random checks. Jean-Luc Moudenc claims to have made a “tacit agreement” with the representative of the State: the year 2023 will be more “educational” than repressive, he assures. Christophe Béchu informed the elected officials of urban France that the installation of radars responsible for the automatic control of vehicles within the perimeter of the ZFE would not be effective until the second half of 2024. In Toulouse, 60 cameras should enter service at the end of 2023, indicated to the Point François Cholet, the deputy mayor of Toulouse in charge of the file, at the beginning of October.
In this context, the mayor of Toulouse created a surprise by publicly questioning the very relevance of the Crit’Air vignettes. “I realized that a poorly maintained Crit’Air 2 car can pollute more than a Crit’Air 4 which has successfully passed the technical inspection”, says Jean-Luc Moudenc. Radicalized environmental activists who deflate 4×4 tires in the city also argue that a large hybrid SUV can release more fine particles into the atmosphere than a lower-rated light-duty vehicle. However, the city of Toulouse now requires a Crit’Air compliant sticker for the 8,000 subscribers to its “resident parking” offer at a preferential price (135 euros per year). Concretely, this means that residents who present a car that is too old can no longer park in the street (16,000 paid spaces on the road).