Throughout 2023, all Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (and those with more than 20,000 with special pollution problems) must establish their respective Low Emission Zones (ZBE). This means that in the almost 150 cities that will be affected by these new restrictions, more than 4 million cars will be affected, which, because they do not have the DGR low-emission badges, will be immediately banished and removed from circulation.
The new limits will affect cities that, in total, accumulate a park of 11 million cars. Each of the cities must establish its own regulations, Therefore, it is not possible to speak of a general regulation. nor of what type of vehicles and in what circumstances will they be affected.
If we try to specify the situation a bit, the vehicles that will have more difficulties to access the center of the cities are mainly those registered before the year 2000 if they have a gasoline engine; or before 2006 in the case of diesel models. All of them are already prohibited, for example, from driving inside the M-30 in Madrid, and accessing the center of Barcelona, in both cases under different circumstances and with some exceptions.
In the Climate Change Lawwhich establishes the criteria for applying ZBEs, states that “the criteria for access and circulation should be aimed at discouraging as much as possible the access of private motorized vehicles in general, regardless of the environmental label it bears”, for which reason some cities They have already opted to pedestrianize their centers.
This means that 32% of the mobile park of these cities will become ‘immobile’ as they are more than two decades old or do not meet the DGT requirements to carry the environmental badge, leaving their owners at the expense of knowing what they can do with them given that they have set an expiration date for circulation.
If we take the regulations applied in Madrid as a reference, the most affected vehicles are those with the A label. In reality, these are precisely those that do not carry a label because they are cars and vans or trucks registered before the year 2001. They will not be able to circulate in the areas delimited by the municipalities, although there are exceptions, such as for residents.
Those labeled B (yellow) correspond to passenger cars and light vans powered by gasoline and registered from January 2000, or diesel from January 2006. Cars with this badge can enter the ZBE but not park inside of them. They will be able to circulate and park along the perimeter streets of any province, with the exception of Madrid, where it will not be possible to park in the central almond. Except for a few exceptions, cars with the distinctive C (green colour), ECO (blue and green) and Cero (blue colour) are exempted from the prohibitions.
New signals from the DGT
This novelty brings the appearance of a new traffic signwhich is added to the new DGT catalog made up of at least nine new callsigns.
Expand its field of action by extending it to the entire road network of our country, reinforce the safety of the most vulnerable users of the different types of roads, incorporate new forms of mobility and facilitate the visibility and understanding of the messages transmitted by the signals are among the objectives of this initiative, which addresses this update for the first time in 18 years.
The objectives are: to create new signals for the most vulnerable, to abandon gender stereotypes, to integrate the new mobility by changing the design of the signals with more modern locomotives and to create new electric scooter warnings. Or even adapt to episodes like the ones we have experienced lately with the presence of wild boars on the roads. And the most important objective: to adapt to the new times to continue ensuring road safety.
The DGT thus adapts to the new ways of moving with the incorporation of a specific signal for scooters, so fashionable now in the streets. Drivers must take notes to learn the new signs and when they see them, they know how to identify them correctly.