Environmental zones have been set up in several European cities and countries to improve air quality. In these zones, restrictions apply to vehicles depending on their environmental performance. The more polluting your car is, the greater the chance that you will no longer be allowed to enter a city center. And where do I need an environmental sticker?
Is one such sticker enough?
Hmm, no, for those who make a long or round trip, it will still be busy on the windscreen. You must have a separate environmental sticker for each country, which varies in price per country from 5 to – don’t be alarmed – 50 euros. Because in most cases you need a separate sticker for each country in which environmental zones apply. Each country has its own rules and classification system for environmental stickers. Most stickers can be purchased or ordered from the ANWB and are valid indefinitely once applied to the windscreen, provided they are legible.
Germany
An environmental sticker is mandatory in many German inner cities. Without such Umweltplaquette you may visit the city centers of Berlin, Bonn, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Gelsenkirchen, Hanover, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Krefeld, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mainz, Mannheim, Mönchengladbach, Munich, Münster , Neuss, Neu-Ulm, Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, Wuppertal not included.
The color and classification of the sticker depend on the so-called emission standard of your vehicle. In addition, in Berlin, Hamburg, Darmstadt, Stuttgart and Munich, a diesel ban or a diesel and petrol ban apply to certain streets or districts.
The environmental zones Umweltzones are indicated by signs. The rules apply to all cars, campers, buses, trucks and all types of fuel. And yes, even if you have an electric car you must have such a sticker within the environmental zones. This also applies to cars with a foreign license plate. Our eastern neighbors have three colors of nationally applicable stickers: green, yellow and red. The color assigned to the vehicle depends on its emissions. Your license plate determines which sticker the car gets.
And if I’m just passing through?
Motorways that run through environmental zones are not covered by the scheme. No environmental sticker is therefore required for a transit to Austria or Switzerland.
Can I still drive into Bonn with my Citroën DS from 1971?
Classic cars with a foreign license plate are also exempt. According to German rules, an old-timer is older than 30 years and must be in a good state of repair. When parking in an environmental zone, place a copy of the registration certificate showing the age of the vehicle, and preferably a FIVA Identity Card clearly visible behind the windshield.
Belgium
You do not need an environmental sticker in Belgium. It may be that you are not allowed to enter a part of Belgium with a certain (polluting) car without a day pass. An environmental zone is being established in Belgium low emission zone (LEZ, low-emission zone ) or zone de basses emissions (ZBE). The three regions of Belgium (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) each separately determine the policy regarding the environmental zones.
The entire Brussels-Capital Region (19 municipalities) falls under the low-emission zone (LEZ). The Ring (R0) is not covered, nor are some access roads to the Ring or to transit car parks. The entire Antwerp city center and Linkeroever is also such a zone. Ghent has a low-emission zone within the R40 city ring road. The most polluting cars are no longer allowed to enter those zones. Vehicles with Dutch license plates do not need to be registered in advance.
France
In France, too, there is a good chance that you will need an environmental sticker to be able to drive in certain city centers or departments. In principle, all French cities and departments can establish an environmental zone, permanently or temporarily if serious air pollution is measured. There are six different vignette classes, based on your car’s emissions.
Currently, permanent environmental zones, also known as the Zones à Circulation Restreinte (ZCR), in France in Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Grenoble, Nice and of course Paris. The vignette is therefore always mandatory here. Disneyland Paris does not belong to an environmental zone.
Do you also need an environmental sticker on the Périphérique of Paris?
With smog, you also need an environmental sticker on the Périphérique, the often very busy ring road right around and through Paris, from the Belgian border and on the Autoroute du Soleil. The area of the inner city of Paris where the environmental sticker is required can be temporarily expanded in the event of smog. In that case you also need an environmental badge on the Péripheérique. The environmental zone will then be extended to the second ring road around Paris, the Périphérique A86. The same goes for Lille. In the entire city, including the suburbs, an environmental sticker is required in case of smog. Such a vignette is also required on the A22 motorway from the Belgian border and the motorway through the city towards Paris.
Handy: the French environmental sticker can also be used in Spain, but unfortunately with the exception of the city of Barcelona.
Can you enter an environmental zone with a Dutch classic car?
No, unlike in Germany you will not get an exemption. This can only be obtained for classic cars registered in France and at least 30 years old with the endorsement on the vehicle registration certificate collection vehicle . Vehicles registered abroad are not eligible for exemption.
Italy
There are no environmental zones yet in most regions of Italy. However, they do exist in several cities including Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Pisa, Verona and Palermo and on the islands of Capri, Ischia, Ponza and Procida. In the land of the boot there is an environmental zone Zone Traffico Limitato (ZTL), often the center and the historic inner city. There you can you can only drive with the right sticker. Sticker requirements vary depending on the city and cost around $5 each time. Some are for sale at the ANWB, others on site in a kiosk, shops and tobacconists. Does the environmental zone apply to a historic centre? Then you cannot buy an environmental sticker for this. To protect the history, cars are not welcome in those places. Permit holders only are allowed to enter the environmental zones. Other traffic only at certain times. In short, the rules in Italy are complicated and differ per city.
Watch out, you’ll get a fine
But. In Italy you see a white sign with a red circle and black letters Zona a traffico limitato (ZTL), and you don’t have a vignette? Then don’t drive any further. There are hefty fines for a violation that are guaranteed to be recorded by cameras. There are high fines for breaking the ZTL rules.
Exceptions?
As far as we know, there are no exceptions for electric cars, diesels, campers or old-timers.
Spain
Large cities such as Madrid and Barcelona have environmental zones for which a so-called DGT sticker is required. The sticker classes are determined based on the vehicle’s emissions. Unfortunately, no Spanish environmental sticker is yet available for vehicles registered in the Netherlands. A Danish, German, French or Austrian environmental sticker is also valid in Spain.
What are the fines per country?
The fines for not having the correct environmental sticker vary per country and can be quite high. From 68 euros in France to 100 euros in Germany. But you can easily be fined several times.
Beware: Sneaky toll roads, high fines
NB. Nowadays there are also invisible toll roads in France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Spain. There are no barriers or toll gates, which makes it easier to drive through the ‘peage’. m Your car will be scanned automatically.
If you forget to pay, you will receive a fine of 90 to 375 euros. For example, since the opening of the French A79 six months ago, more than 200,000 people have been fined. Violators now have three days after receipt to pay the toll, because it is a new route. But soon the French state will be inexorable: a fine will follow immediately.
Such a ‘normal drive through’ toll road is indicated on the signs. So it says ‘ flujo libre along some Spanish highways, ‘peage, flux libre ‘ in France and in Italy you are warned with the term ‘free-flow ‘.
In Italy you have to watch out for the A36 north of Milan, the A60 south of Varese and the A59 at Como.
In Poland, the A2 between (Konin – Stryków) and A4 (Wrocław – Sośnica near Gliwice) invisible toll roads.
You can prevent problems with ‘secret’ toll roads by purchasing a toll badge, which can be done at the ANWB, among others. This means that all tolls in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy are automatically debited. You can pay afterwards, but do not wait longer than 72 hours.