All Spanish towns of 50,000 or more must have 'Madrid Central' low-emissions zone
Wednesday, January 22, 2020 @ 9:42 PM
ALL TOWNS and cities in Spain with a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants will soon be required by law to implement their own 'Madrid Central' in a bid to cut air pollution and slow down climate change.
President Pedro Sánchez had already proposed this in his July presidential investiture speech – when he failed to be voted in due to not securing enough support from the opposition for his minority government – but now he is officially in power thanks to a coalition deal with fellow leftists Podemos, the 'proposal' is set to become an 'obligation'.
'Madrid Central' was set up by the capital's former mayoress, Manuela Carmena, from Ahora Madrid, a branch of Podemos, and effectively bans traffic from the middle 'almond' of the city.
Emissions-free vehicles are allowed in, as well as those heading directly for a parking space, plus residents, public transport, and loading and unloading vehicles during certain times of day.
The move was introduced after Madrid and Barcelona, among a number of other cities across the continent, were hauled before the European Commission to explain what they intended to do about their air pollution problems.
Until then, Manuela Carmena had been staging impromptu traffic restrictions within the M-30 ringroad on days when pollution levels were high, some of which involved alternative-numbered registration plates – a difficult concept to police, especially where new car sales had been high during a given year and low in another, leading to a heavy bias towards one registration plate letter or another.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com