A collective to oppose the Toulouse ZFE
It is a collective that hopes roll back Toulouse Métropole on the issue of the ZFE. The “Collectif 31 Suspension ZFE” has just been created. A Low Emissions Zone, the conditions of which were further tightened on January 1: vehicles with Crit’Air 4, 5 and non-classified stickers are now prohibited in Toulouse intramuros and on the western ring road. Next year, it will be the turn of the Crit’Air 3.
An EPZ described as “unfair”
A ZFE that the collective qualifies as draconian, unequal and discriminatory. He therefore organized a public meeting this Tuesday evening at the Hangar de la Cépière, an associative hall in the district, to unite the opponents and start working on alternatives. About a hundred people took part, including Jean-Pierre Bataille, one of the founders of the “Collectif 31 Suspension ZFE”: “I am an energy-environment professor, so I am well placed to say that I want Toulouse to be a cleaner city, but certainly not under conditions where poor people suffer unfair consequences. Personally, I have a Crit’Air 3 car which I use very little. I don’t get around town by bike, on foot or by metro: these are ways to reduce pollution. But there’s no reason to scrap working cars just because they’re old. And the system of derogations of 52 days per year is neither satisfactory nor applicable. When I need to take my car to pick up my grandchildren urgently from school because they are sick, how do you want me to declare myself 24 hours before? »
“The ZFE is the area with high exclusion! »
The discussions lasted nearly three hours. The participants were able to share their observations, such as this inhabitant of Bagatelle, who was quite upset against the ZFE: ” In my neighborhood, no one has a Crit’Air sticker. What’s crazy is that a 2005 Clio won’t be able to drive while a much more polluting Maserati will be allowed. The ZFE is the area with high exclusion! »
Beyond the complaints and the rants, the participants in the public meeting were also invited to proposing avenues of work and solutions to put an end to the ZFE. Fabrice, who makes 90% of his trips by bicycle, would like the public authorities to work on solutions to make vehicles already in circulation less polluting: “I find it absurd to ban old cars from driving on the pretext that they emit CO2, when the manufacture of electric cars emitted a gigantic amount of CO2. But since it’s not in France, who cares. It will be necessary to try to accompany the old cars and to transform them, to put filters in them. No one thinks about how to make old cars less polluting. It may be necessary to change the fuels, to lighten the concentrations… What I find absurd is thatwe always try to replace rather than repair and make them live longer. I’m into cycling and the idea is to make bikes live as long as possible with used parts from wrecks. But that, of course, does not make the economic machine that is crushing the planet work. »
The “Collectif 31 Suspension ZFE” is coming soon post a petition to say no to the ZFE in its current form. Other meetings will be organized in the coming weeks.