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Madrid's Ban On Polluting Vehicles Cuts Traffic By Nearly 32 Percent In Some Areas (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cause-and-effect dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Last Friday, Madrid's tough new vehicle emissions controls went into effect, resulting in a drop in traffic by nearly 32 percent in some parts of the city, reports El Pais. The new rules impose strict restrictions on which vehicles can enter an area of just under two square miles in the city's downtown. The plan, known as Madrid Central, is an attempt to lower the city's nitrogen dioxide levels, which have exceeded European limits since 2010 and are thought to cause around 3,000 premature deaths per year, according to one study.

The exact drop in traffic varied between different areas in the zone. One area, San Bernardo, saw a modest reduction of just over 5 percent, while Gran Via saw the highest reduction of 31.8 percent. Although Reuters reports that traffic continues to be heavy around the perimeter of the zone, El Pais claims that even there, traffic levels were down by between 1 and 2 percent. The lack of congestion also had benefits for public transport, with bus speeds on one highway increasing by 14 percent. "Petrol and diesel cars registered before 2000 and 2006, respectively, will be restricted, while hybrid vehicles will be allowed to enter the area and park for a maximum of two hours," reports The Verge. "However, residents living in the controlled areas will not be affected by the ban. Petrol and diesel taxis will continued to be allowed in the area until 2022. Electric cars, which produce no emissions, driven by non-residents will also be allowed to freely enter the area."

11 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't this by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Funny

    Isn't cause and effect amazing? You ban some cars and lo, there are fewer cars! It's like magic.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Isn't this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      You do realize this ban affects a two square mile area of the city of Madrid and applies to non-residents of the area. Residents are entitled to use their ICE cars while non-residents will have legal ways to move their things into that area.

    2. Re:Isn't this by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Going to be interesting to see what the effect on property values will be when people can't easily move stuff in and out of the area.

      Since residents are not affected by the ban, and traffic is now lighter, it will be easier to move stuff in and out, and property values should soar to the moon.

    3. Re:Isn't this by houghi · · Score: 2

      I doubt that it is that size. They use metric.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Isn't this by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      You're missing the story here. These bans are becoming commonplace in Europe yet depending on where dramatically changes the impact. For instance similar rules were introduced in Dutch cities. This has had almost zero impact in traffic in the inner city as people either already had modern cars or were quick to replace them. When looking to solutions to Paris the reduction in dirty diesel didn't have an affect on air-pollution so they required instead a different and more severe approach when air quality gets bad.

      The news here is that when they did this in Madrid the traffic WAS affected.

  2. Re:Opportunity by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    C'était un rendez-vous

    Please, I beg of all of you.... it's not difficult.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  3. No surprise, private cars slow down mass transit by blahbooboo · · Score: 4, Informative

    We see this in other cities were they limit private cars and prioritize buses. Several cities have dedicated bus only lanes Mass transit then works faster is used more and moves more people.

  4. Intended side effect of banning poor people by edtice1559 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't think this is a bad move since getting cars out of cities is a smart priority. But this has the effect of banning poor people. Late model cars can come in but if you drive an older car you are SOL. Similar to how Mexico City used to have even/odd number days (maybe they still do) where you could only drive every other day based on your license plate. Rich people all suddenly had two cars!

    1. Re:Intended side effect of banning poor people by dasunt · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't think this is a bad move since getting cars out of cities is a smart priority. But this has the effect of banning poor people.

      Poor people don't vote as much.

      Roads are already biased against the poor. They are subsidized via the general fund, yet frequently built for automobiles, which are costly to purchase and maintain. If roads were orientated towards bus users, cyclists, and pedestrians, that would be much more usable by the poor. Or heck, even 50cc scooters - they are far cheaper than the equivalent motor vehicles.

    2. Re:Intended side effect of banning poor people by iampiti · · Score: 3, Informative

      Poor people now can't enter that area of the city with their own cars but they can surely get there using Madrid's pretty good public transportation system.

  5. Does it work? by b0bby · · Score: 2

    Sure, banning polluting cars will drop the numbers of cars. The important part will be, does it actually lead to a drop in NO2 in that area? It should, but it will be good to see actual data and even better to see if that affects the death rate there too.