ZFE. Traffic restrictions for the most polluting vehicles are intensifying. From 2024, fines will be imposed in the low emission zones (ZFE) concerned. In which cities, which vehicles will be affected? We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 25 octobre 2022 à 19h36] Low-emission zones, mostly city center areas where the most polluting vehicles are prohibited from driving, are gradually spreading. Until then, the penalties for offenders driving vehicles deemed polluting (ie generally those driving vehicles corresponding to the Crit’Air classification 4 and 5) did not risk much, if anything at all. But that will change! Meeting for the first time on Tuesday, October 25, the ministerial committee for monitoring low-emission zones approved the introduction of fines from 2024. In the second half of 2024, offenders will be exposed to a fine “theoretically class 3 “according to the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, i.e. “68 euros maximum”. Today, 11 cities have set up Low Emission Zones (ZFE) but there should be more than 40 agglomerations by the year 2025.
How will the checks be done? The committee has its own idea: automated checks by means of radars are being studied. Gates at the entrance to the zones, cameras… The selected projects must be announced later but the means of verification is indeed very simple since it suffices to scan the license plate and connect the data to those of the gray cards to obtain the pedigree of the vehicle: age, class by fiscal horsepower, model and identity of the owner appear there as well. In short, child’s play…
11 conurbations have already set up ZFEs. Here is the list:
- Aix-Marseille with an area currently restricted to the hyper-center of Marseille. Vehicles without Crit’Air class (i.e. the oldest) and those in Crit’Air 5 category are prohibited from driving there during the week.
- Lyon with a ZFE where vehicles in Crit’Air class are prohibited from driving in an area inside Boulevard Bonnevay and concerning Caluire, Villeurbanne, Bron or Vénissieux.
- In Rouen where vehicles of Crit’Air classes 5 but also 4 are concerned!
- In Toulouse, only utility vehicles and heavy goods vehicles in categories 4 and 5 are concerned in the area inside the ring road.
- Same thing in Grenoble
- In Paris, vehicles in Crit’Air class 4 and 5, both heavy goods vehicles and cars, are already concerned in intramural Paris and for all the municipalities of the Greater Paris conurbation.
- Same restrictions in Reims.
- In Strasbourg, light vehicles class Crit’Air 5 and unclassified throughout the agglomeration are already concerned.
- Same thing in Nice
- Same thing in Toulon
- In Montpellier and its agglomeration, light vehicles without Crit’Air class, ie the oldest, are concerned.
Since June 1, 2021, the ZFE in Greater Paris has been changing with the ban on the circulation of Crit’Air 4 vehicles. Be aware, however, that the vehicles of charitable associations, vehicles bearing the mention FG TD on the registration certificate , vehicles over 30 years old “used in the context of a commercial activity of a tourist nature”… but also “vehicles whose registration certificate bears the mention ‘collection'” have a derogation to circulate.
A Low Emission Zone (ZFE), also called Restricted Traffic Zone (ZCR) is a perimeter defined on a specific territory, in which the circulation of the most polluting vehicles is limited or prohibited on “determined time slots”, according to the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition. Concretely, in an EPZ, the vehicles are differentiated according to their level of emissions of atmospheric pollutants. ZFEs are based on the Crit’Air sticker system. Only a few cities have set up a ZFE in France at present.
The mobility orientation law will however accelerate the deployment of ZFEs in other cities, “in particular those whose concentration thresholds for atmospheric pollutants are regularly exceeded”, indicates the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition. Concretely, the mobility orientation law will “ask all agglomerations of more than 100,000 inhabitants and those concerned by an Atmosphere Protection Plan to assess the advisability of setting up a ZFE”.
Supported by the state, ZFEs or ZCRs are “intended to reduce pollutant emissions, particularly in large cities, to improve air quality”. ZFEs exist in “231 European cities” according to the Ministry for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, which specifies that they are “recognized as particularly effective in reducing emissions from road traffic”. The implementation of ZFEs is decided by the local authorities, who choose the scope of application, the categories of vehicles concerned, the timetables of application, the strengthening of the rules of the ZFE over time, or even the exemptions granted.
In the event of non-compliance with the traffic restrictions imposed by a Low Emission Zone (ZFE), the driver of the offending vehicle (light vehicle or motorized two-wheeler) risks a fixed fine of 68 euros, as in the case of non-compliance. respect for differentiated traffic. This fine will also be valid if there is no Crit’Air sticker on the vehicle, or if the Crit’Air sticker does not correspond to the Crit’Air category of the vehicle. Note that the fine is higher for drivers of heavy goods vehicles, coaches and buses: its amount is set at 135 euros.
There are two types of derogations: national derogations and local derogations. National derogations concern vehicles of priority general interest, such as those of the police, the gendarmerie, the fire brigade, customs, mobile hospital units, or even those of the prison administration. Vehicles affiliated with the Ministry of Defense are not affected by the ZFE, as are those carrying “a parking card for disabled people or a mobility inclusion card”. Public transport vehicles are not affected either. Finally, vehicles of general interest can also benefit from “facilities of passage”, according to the metropolis of Greater Paris:
- Ambulances
- Security intervention vehicles of electricity and gas infrastructure management companies
- Banque de France cash transport vehicles
- SNCF surveillance service vehicles
- The vehicles of medical associations “contributing to the permanence of care”
- On-call doctors’ vehicles
- Vehicles for transporting “blood products and human organs”
- winter service vehicles
- The intervention vehicles of the departments managing the motorways or “roads with two separate carriageways”
Still according to information from the Greater Paris metropolis, the local derogations concern several categories of vehicles. Thus, these categories of vehicles are not affected by the restrictions inherent in the Greater Paris ZFE. They might not be affected by the restrictions of other EPZs, if the local authorities so decide. Here are the categories of vehicles subject to a local exemption in the Greater Paris ZFE:
- Collector’s vehicles (registration on the compulsory registration certificate)
- Vehicles over 30 years old “used in the context of a commercial activity of a tourist nature” (K-Bis of the company to justify)
- The vehicles of removal professionals (authorization issued “by the competent authority” required)
- Vehicles of civil security associations (document of the association “proving their quality” mandatory)
- Refrigerated vehicles (“FG TD” on the registration certificate)
- Tank vehicles (“CIT” or “CARB” on the registration certificate)
- Vehicles “used in the context of public road events or demonstrations of a festive, economic, sporting or cultural type subject to an authorization to use the public domain, excluding the personal vehicles of the organizers and some participants”
- Vehicles used “in the context of filming subject to authorization”
- Public service vehicles “as part of one-off interventions, provided with a mission order”
- Specialized vehicles not assigned to the transport of goods (mention “VASP” on the registration certificate or “VTSU” on the gray card), except motorhomes
- Exceptional convoys
Theoretically, signs indicating the entry or exit of the ZFE should have been installed in the areas concerned. These signs must indicate the categories of vehicles authorized as well as the timetables for the application of traffic restrictions. Few verbalizations have been put in place so far, but the interministerial monitoring committee announced on October 25, 2022 the implementation of automated controls with automatic fines by the year 2024.