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Toll of four euros per day for cars with one or two occupants: the measure against pollution of residents and environmentalists in Barcelona

2022-05-17T10:56:30.410Z


The proposal aims to allocate the proceeds to improve metropolitan public transport and public health


Vehicles at the access to the Low Emissions Zone of Barcelona, ​​in a file image.Carles Ribas (EL PAÍS)

Neighborhood organizations and environmentalists in Barcelona such as Eixample respire or the Platform for Air Quality have presented this Tuesday a forceful proposal for a toll against pollution in the city.

The idea is that cars that circulate around the city between 7 am and 8 pm with only one or two occupants (70% of internal traffic, they say) pay four euros a day.

The schedule is designed so that there is an alternative to the car in public transport.

The toll would not be physical, with barriers, but would include the area of ​​the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) and it would be the Urban Guard who would ensure compliance with random controls.

The current cameras that read license plates to check vehicle emissions would serve to control the payment, which would be made the day before.

The promoters, who plan to implement the system in the next two years, rule out bonuses in the toll rate, because they understand that it would be to encourage the use of the car.

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A study estimates that the urban toll would remove 190 million cars from Madrid and Barcelona

The toll would affect all vehicles, whether or not they are residents, and also delivery vehicles, except for emergency or special vehicles, low-income vehicles that need a car to work or public transport.

It would allow eliminating 21% of access traffic and 31% of internal traffic and raising 370 million euros that would be allocated to urban transport and health, always according to the promoters.

70% of the vehicles that circulate in Barcelona do so with a single occupant, they have specified.

The promoters defend that it is "the most effective measure to discourage car use" and that it works in 19 European cities, with reductions of up to 30% in traffic.

In Barcelona, ​​the average vehicle occupancy rate is 1.19 people.

The government of Mayor Ada Colau has been studying the implementation of a toll since 2019, but at this stage of her mandate, one year before the elections, she rules out starting it.

After the presentation, when asked, the Deputy Mayor for Ecology, Urban Planning and Mobility assured that they would study the proposal and clarified that "as the ZBE needs a great consensus between administrations because, among other issues, the legislation would have to be modified".

In Barcelona, ​​the justice overturned the ZBE for "excessive" after an appeal from employers and drivers' associations, but it remains in force because it can be appealed.

The proposal is accompanied by the campaign "Barcelona 2022, from the city of cars to that of people", a nod to the thirtieth anniversary of the 1992 Olympic Games. If the Olympics transformed the city with large mobility infrastructures, now it is the moment to take out cars, they defend.

Among the entities that have worked on the proposal are the Platform for Air Quality, Eixample Respira, Ecologistes en Acció, the Bicycle Club of Catalonia (BACC) or the Platform for Public Transport (PTP).

"The message is that a one-tonne car traveling with a person weighing eighty kilos is a privilege: we do not prohibit you from driving but you must compensate for the environmental costs," Guille López, from the neighborhood organization Eixample Respira, defended.

"We want to provoke a change in behaviour", added Maria García, from Ecologistes en Acció.

“We understand that the ZBE is amortized, it has already reduced pollution according to initial forecasts.

It has been shown necessary and insufficient.

And given the inaction of the administrations, the toll yes or toll no debate is already over.

Now the debate is how the toll should be”, argued López.

The toll proposal contemplates that its proceeds be allocated to a shock plan to improve metropolitan public transport and to create access bus lanes to Barcelona and more bike lanes.

10% of the proceeds would go to health.

Regarding the amount of four euros, López has assured that "it is not a random price" but rather it is based on a cost-benefit analysis: "The costs of implementing the measure and those that the current pollution in Barcelona entails."

The daily rate, he has defended, would be in the low range of other cities that have urban tolls, such as Milan (5 euros), London (12 euros) or Stockholm (14 euros).

The proposal comes a year before the municipal elections, so the platform will force the political parties to take a position on the matter.

In fact, Barcelona en comú or ERC already carried the idea in their most recent programs, in 2019.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-17

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