The ZBE of Barcelona has reduced the circulation of the most polluting cars by 70%

taketonews

The former president of the RACC, Sebastià SalvadóHe was a peculiar man. He listened attentively, and after a while, after maturing his opinion, he spoke. In 2010, in a debate about whether motorcycles had to use the bus lanespoke before the mayor Jordi Hereu. His press officers gulped: “There is no need to do anything, the current situation of “permissiveness is the best possible context.” Short and to the foot. Letting things happen and waiting for things to settle down is precisely what the Barcelona’s town hall according to the low emissions zone (ZBE), in force since 2020. The decree that the Government has in hand, which will regulate the environmental umbrellas of all of Catalonia, draws some restrictions that the capital will also have to apply. But the council asks that the “territorial realities”, and in his allegations he has shown his disagreement on the implementation schedule. It also makes sense of experience (that laissez-faire), which says that since 2017, when we began to warn of what was coming, the most polluting vehicles, without environmental label or B label, They have gone from representing 61% to being only 19.3% of the circulating fleet (not to be confused with those registered and signed by the DGT). A 70% reduction.

While in the metropolitan arch The debate focuses on restrictions, in the big city the complaint has more to do with autonomy. Municipalities such as Badalona, ​​Terrassa, Sabadell or Mataró have raised their voices against the obligation for a 25% of the urban territory must be within the ZBE, and due to the schedule of vetoes for vehicles with a B label: Euro 4 diesel, starting January 1, 2026, and all vehicles with a B label, out of circulation as of January 1, 2028. “He is nonsense,” the mayors agree, in the allegations presented to the decree of the Generalitat.

Cambio de ciclo

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La evolución de la ZBE de Barcelona demuestra que las cosas cambian en el medio plazo. En mayo de 2017, cuando por primera vez se habla del proyecto, los vehículos que entraban y salían de la ciudad tenían la siguiente configuración en cuanto a etiquetas ambientales: 18% sin distintivo, 43% con la B, 24% con la C, 5% blandían la ECO y un 9% no se podían identificar. Siete años después, con modificaciones muy puntuales en la ordenanza, más obligadas por las sentencias contrarias a la ZBE que a un endurecimiento del plan que no se ha producido, el paisaje es muy distinto: 1,2% sin etiqueta, 18,1% con la B, 55% con la C, 21% de ECO y 4% de cero emisiones. A destacar que ya son más los ECO que los que llevan la B, y que los que van sin distintivo han pasado del 18% a un irrisorio 1,2%.

Vehicle with label B, circulating through the streets of Barcelona / Joan Cortadellas

Es decir, que de un 61% de coches más contaminantes se ha pasado a un 19,3% y los que blanden etiquetas ecológicas (con todos los matices sobre los residuos de la tecnología de las baterías eléctricas y las partículas que generan los neumáticos y el frenado) ascienden ya al 25%. Con todo, Barcelona cumplió en 2023, por fin, con los límites de contaminación que marca la Unión Europea.

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