For those wanting to use our data for commercial use, we have a range of offerings.

• A licence fee for using the data from our website for usage by or on behalf of commercial organisations.
• An Online Dashboard with summary UVAR data from the website
• An Excel spreadsheet with all Zero Emission Zone (ZEZs) at local, regional and national levels, confirmed as well as planned ZEZs, and their status.
• Timeline presented for the ZEZ data
• Overview table of Low Emission Zones (LEZs), or of all Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs).
• Providing our data on your online maps.
• APIs for the Dashboard, map and city data, to be able to incorporate the data in your offerings.

See the examples below (please note, the data in the example pictured above is not updated).

All information and formats below are copyright Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH.

 ZEZ Plans & Bans:

This gives ZEZ schemes, classified by their status in terms of confirmed or not.  It includes those at national, city and regional level, from city ZEZs to ICE phaseout of different vehicle types. It also includes Net Zero, Climate Neutral etc targets, usually at city level. Focus on Europe, but increasing coverage outside Europe.

© Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH 

ZEZ Plans & Bans Timeline in presentation form (template without data shown)

This is the data from the ZEZ Plans and Bans, presented on a timeline to give an overview. There are different sheets for different aspects (city / national / climate neutral) etc. We have needless to say removed the data for this image. There are a number of timelines, one for ZEZs, National/regional ICE bans, Net Zero aims at city and national levels and diesel bans.

Dashboard:

With current, future and past confirmed schemes - a summary of the data on our website. As it is based on information on our website, it is confirmed schemes only. Each phase of each scheme has its own row, with the details given. Dashboard is available in an online version or an API.

Urban Vehicle Access Regulation (UVAR) Executive Summary:

This is if you like an Executive Summary of our website. As it is based on information on our website, it is confirmed schemes only. It is also, at the national level, the overview of the frameworks that might enable, indicate or require, future schemes to come. We include all the schemes types in this summary.

www.urbanaccessregulation.eu API data in your Apps

This is one example of CLARS API usage, from ACE Auto Club Europa e.V., a German Car Club, and they provide reliable German LEZ data from CLARS to their members through their App. The CLARS map, city data and Dashboard are all available as API data. 

 (Data copyright Sadler Consultants, presentation by ACE Auto Club Europa e.V.).

Sadler Consultants, and the CLARS website, were part of a successful four-year Horizon 2020-funded project to help city authorities improve liveability in their cities: ReVeAL (Regulating Vehicle Access for Improved Liveability).

Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVAR) can be one of the most effective levers to help achieve a number of goals that a city has. The goals might include achieving climate neutrality; reducing congestion; or improving air quality, public transport or urban liveability.

The ReVeAL Project, (Regulating Vehicle Access for Improved Liveability), combined desk research and case study research with hands-on UVAR implementation in six pilot cities: Helmond (NL), Jerusalem (IL), London (UK), Padova (IT), Vitoria-Gasteiz (ES) and Bielefeld (DE). The project both supported these 6 cities as well as produced an UVAR toolkit for other towns and cities wanting to implement UVARs.

What are Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs)?
They are rules for traffic entering cities. They can also be seen as regulations, restrictions or bans. They are implemented to improve the town or city in a number of ways, see “Why Urban Access Regulations”.

There are three main types of scheme, with emissions, costs or other (see our overview page). There are also combined schemes, for example where vehicles must both pay and meet emissions standards; or permits are only given if emissions standards are met.

What type of Urban Vehicle Access Regulations are there?

You can find below the main kinds of scheme:

• Low Emission Zones (LEZ)
  • Most are area-based; some are specific streets, occasionally motorways
  • Can be Sticker, Camera, or sometimes manual without Sticker
  • Can affect different vehicle types, sometimes trip types (eg delivery)
    
    
• Urban Toll Schemes / Congestion Charging (CS)
  • Usually area based, but some individual streets / bridges, or point-based
  • Camera enforced, where you need to pay beforehand (sometimes up to the end of the day), online, by phone or sometimes transponder or by a payment booth at the entry of the road / bridge
    
    
• Emergency Air Pollution Schemes
  • Cover a certain area, whole municipality or region
  • Either on predicted air pollution, or after a certain number of days with high pollution
• Zero Emission Zones (ZEZ) are increasing in numbers
  • Requiring vehicles with battery electric or hydrogen vehicles, as well as cycles and feet. Some allow plug in hybrid vehicles. Some ZEZs can be traffic-free, or larger pedestrian / cycle areas
    
    
• Other Access Regulations can be many and varied
  • Limited Traffic Zones, where only certain vehicles are allowed in, often requiring permits
  • Through traffic bans, often for heavy vehicles
  • Restrictions for vehicles of particular weights, vehicle or trip types
  • Requirements for particular vehicles (eg safety wing mirrors)
  • Access / delivery time windows (sometimes with permit requirements)
  • Coordinated Parking Schemes and pedestrian zones (these are generally not on the urbanaccessregulations.eu website, although some of the larger ones are)
  • ‘Superblocks’, where traffic, and particularly through traffic is reduced by permit entry and one-way systems
    
    
• Combined Schemes are increasing
  • For example schemes combining emissions requirements with permit requirements, parking costs/permission, delivery windows, tolls, …

• Smaller Regulations / Restrictions are numerous 
  • Many small towns have through traffic bans, town (shopping / historical) centre pedestrian zones, individual streets that do not / cannot take certain vehicles, traffic calmed areas such as 'home zones' or 20 kph streets/areas. Many of these restrictions are notified simply by a road sign, which needs to be obeyed.
  • Increasingly local regulations such as 'school streets' where a street or part of a street outside a school (or other sensitive area), which during the start and end of the school day is reserved for pedestrians/cyclists and most vehicular traffic is prohibited.

Under some definitions, such as the EU Horizon 2020 ReVeAL project on UVARs , Spatial Interventions are also defined as UVARs. Spatial Interventions are where changes in the road layout prevent vehicles accessing parts of the road network. For example, one-way roads can be combined to stop through traffic in an area. This could be through bollards, one-way streets, parking bays becoming recreational parks etc. These can be used to compliment, or instead of 'traditional' UVARs. This website doesn't generally include Spatial Interventions.

For more information on the different main types, see our background pages on:

Low Emission Zones  

Urban Toll Schemes / Congestion Charging (CS)

Other Access Regulations

Emergency Air Pollution Schemes

There are also increasingly Zero Emission Zones

often as a later phase of current Low Emission Zones

Full information on each city is given on our full city pages. You can find these through the city search on most pages, the Schemes by Country pages or our map.

If you are planning a trip or tour of Europe, our route planner can help identify which cities have urban vehicle access regulations.

Impacts of UVARs

There is a large overlap on the kind of impacts different UVARs have. Those aimed at resolving traffic congestion issues such as road tolls, traffic limited zones, permit schemes, controlled parking, can also have positive impacts on all the issues that one might want to use UVARs for, such as:

• Air quality improvement
• Traffic congestion reduction
• Urban landscape preservation (historic town centres)
• Climate change mitigation
• Quality of life
• Noise mitigation
• Road safety
• Raising revenues
  

The reduction in traffic, and therefore the noise and emissions-heavy stop-start congested traffic, will also have a positive benefit on many other aspects.
Most ‘standard’ low emission zones may have their impact mainly on air quality, as the vehicles are replaced rather than the trip mode changed. Combined low emission zones can have wider effects, and Zero Emission Zones can also impact noise and climate aspects.

For more information on the different impacts of different schemes, see our impact pages for Low Emission Zones, urban road tolls and other urban vehicle access regulations.

If you are a city or other public authority

You might like to look at our Public Authority page.

What are urban road tolls?

An urban road toll is where entry to an area is subject to payment. This is usually done to reduce traffic congestion or traffic jams in the city, but can also improve other issues, such as air quality and noise. In most cities the money raised from the schemes is usually spent improving transport in and around the city.

Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH
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Copyright of this website, Terms & Conditions

This website is subject Copyright, including database copyright and sui generis right. These include rights from Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH 2018-2019, Sadler Consultants Ltd 2007-2017 and the European Union 2013-2017. Certain parts are licensed under conditions from the EU. Other parts have other ownerships. All are protected.

All rights reserved. Other than for the personal use, no part of this publication or its design may be reproduced, transmitted or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH.

If you wish to use the data from the website, or are interested in additional services on urban access regulations that we may have, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Our purpose is to help people know where Urban Access Regulations are in Europe. Please do link to our website, to help us help your readers, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want support with that link or in producing a news item. Do not display our website in a frame on your website, scrape, or collect the data from our site for your site without receiving our written permission.

All names, words, symbols and graphics may be trademarks or registered trademarks owned by their legal owners. The rights of all mentioned and used brand names and trademarks belong to their owners.

The use of text, images and the database of schemes, in whole or in part, without the written permission from ourselves and is therefore punishable. This applies in particular to reproduction, translation and use in any media of any form -especially in electronic systems.

Copyright includes database rights and sui generis rights. The ownership of the original data remains also unaltered by the inclusion on this website. 

This website was funded from 23rd December 2013 to 22nd December 2017 within a contract with the European Union. From 23rd December 2017 the website is run on a sustainable funding basis by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH, with EU on the steering group.

All intellectual property of Sadler Consultants Ltd, Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH or the EU such as trademarks, trade names, patents, registered designs, logos and any other automatic intellectual property rights derived from the aesthetics or functionality of the Website remain the property of Sadler Consultants Ltd, Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH and the European Union, as appropriate. The opinions expressed are those of Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH only, and do not represent the EU or the European Commission's official position. 

By using the Website you agree to respect the intellectual property rights of Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH, Sadler Consultants Ltd and the European Union and will refrain from any activity that involves exploiting any material contained within the Website for commercial purpose, including copying, downloading, transmitting, reproducing, printing without written permission from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Registered users T&C

Registration as a stakeholder gives you access to our periodic email alerts to find out when urban access regulation schemes are implemented or change. Registration may also give access to other aspects of the www.urbanaccessregulations.eu website as they may develop. See below for our Privacy Policy.

If you are registered with us we will not give your registration details to anyone else and we will keep them secure. You will be able to check the details given by you, online.
You can un-register at any time by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., but this will mean you will not receive any alerts as to new or changed access regulation schemes.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this website is to give information for those needing to access cities with vehicles. We provide information on Access Regulation Schemes (ARS) in Europe. ARS include Low Emission Zones, Congestion Charging or any other scheme or measure where access is regulated or restricted.

The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The European Union endorses the English version of the website.

This website is for your information only. We take no responsibility for any action taken, or not taken, based on information on this website. Neither do we take responsibility for any problems you have or penalties you receive in any access restrictions.

The situation is regularly changing, new schemes are introduced or existing schemes altered. This site is regularly updated and makes reasonable efforts to be complete and accurate, however, this cannot be guaranteed. We can accept no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information on this website, or for compliance of any individual vehicle with any scheme. We accept no responsibility for any action taken from information on this website. For the most accurate and up-to-date information on each scheme, please check the individual scheme website, which can be found from the city pages as well as the useful links pages.

All Schemes on this website have been officially confirmed as in operation or preparation. This may change, for example the air quality may improve through other means, or the start date may slip. There may also be schemes that are under preparation but not yet officially confirmed, that are not on this website.

We provide automatic translation to help you use the information. We accept no responsibility for the accuracy of translations. We are aware that automatic translations are not ideal, but try to keep our language simple, so the meaning of the translation is as clear as possible.

Information on exemptions are listed for your guide only. They are not officially translated, and we do not update them as often as other aspects of the data. The original on the city/regional/national website is the only accurate source.

The completeness of the different types of scheme varies. Low Emission Zones (LEZs) and Congestion or other urban road Charging Schemes (CS) should be fairly complete. The coverage of the Major Traffic schemes (Key-ARS) does not attempt to be comprehensive or cover every urban area, but to cover as many as possible within the remit of the project. It will include at least the cities over 500,000 population, more being collected over time. If you have information on any schemes, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., as it will help us provide more information for you and your colleagues.

Any maps used have been collected from public sources. 

There are a number of links to external websites from this website. We cannot take responsibility for the content of these websites.

For problems with the functioning of this website, please Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pictures

Maps of the cities, and pictures of the stickers etc are from official sources.

Photos are largely from websites from free to use and do not require attributes: pixabay.com, unsplash.com or freestockphotos.biz, or our own photos. 

For a number of photos we have bought a licence from iStockphoto.com. These include: The Umweltzone road sign picture from the homepage . The Milan city photo from behind the city search.  

Other photos are as per the source given.

Does your work involve improving the environment or traffic in your city or ministry?
Are you operating, planning, considering, investigating a Low Emission Zone, Congestion Charging, urban road user charging, access regulation, vehicle access restriction, lorry ban etc?
Then the CLARS Platform is for you.

What we provide on Access Regulations for cities
The FREE Membership provides access to
CLARS Plus Membership
Other projects
Who we are
Submitting information for the public website www.urbanaccessregulations.eu

What we provide on Access Regulations for cities
Access Regulations are an increasingly important urban tool, for congestion, air pollution, noise and life quality. They can also help towards the EU goal of no conventionally fuelled vehicles in cities by 2050 and no conventionally fuelled logistics in 2030; as well as the EU air quality Limit Values.

CLARS (Charging, Low Emission Zones, other Access Regulation Schemes) membership supports public authorities with Access Regulations.

We also provide a key resource for the public, providing a comprehensive, neutral, single information source of Urban Access Regulations on the web, with all the information vehicle drivers and operators need. For cities, the public website provides a key part of your information dissemination for your Freedom of Movement responsibilities.

We provide best practice and experience of other cities to make schemes more successful and easier to implement.

The FREE CLARS Public Authority Membership provides access to:
1) A wealth of relevant information, guidance, advice, links and more
2) Periodic emails with ARS-focused news, updates and issues you should be aware of.
4) Looking to have ARS in ITS (Satellite Navigation, Apps etc), to help both cities and drivers with compliance rates.

Since 1.1.18 we are operating without EU funding, so we need to cover our costs, so:

CLARS Plus Membership provides (1,500€ per year) additional:
5) Ask questions on of the secretariat and other members.
6) A forum to ask questions, discuss issues, post information
7) Other actions, eg Cross-Border Enforcement Working Group, Consultations....
8) Supporting CLARS financially, to enable it to continue spreading information around Europe, and helping meet your EU Freedom of Movement Requirements

Our extensive members website includes:

• EU guidance documents and reports on LEZs and Access Regulations
• Collated overview reports, including the Sadler Consultants Low Emission Zones in Europe for ADEME Report,
• Support to set up or investigate schemes
• Best Practice support
• Scheme Impacts
• Case studies and feasibility studies
• Euro VI/6 & real world emissions tests
• Foreign vehicle enforcement
• Cleaner Construction Schemes
• and much more!

The website is in English, with automatic translation that may be able to help you. Between us the secretariat can speak, read and write English, German and French.

We can also help you provide information on LEZ or traffic schemes in different languages. Link to the relevant page on our website (eg www.urbanaccessregulations.eu/london), and the information is available in every European language.

If you are interested in membership, please register with us, using the register button on this page. Please forward this to other colleagues working on both environment and transport issues that might be interested.

As Membership is only available to public authorities, so we review and approve registrations. We will approve registrations as quickly as possible, but please allow a few days before you receive details on how to access the members website and secretariat.

For information on CLARS PLUS membership, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Other related projects

Sadler Consultants plays a leading role in the EU Horizon 2020 Access Regulation project, ReVeAL. Within ReVeAL, Spatial Interventions are also considered as UVARs. Spatial Interventions are where road space is given from vehicles to other uses or the road layout otherwise altered. They are not always defined as UVARs (for example are generally not included in the data on this website), but can be used either to complement or as alternatives to ‘traditional UVARs’.

The ReVeAL project is supporting 6 pilot cities in developing good practice UVARs, and through this provide a Toolkit to help support further cities develop good practice UVARs.  Part of this toolkit is a series of Guidance Documents, covering different aspects of UVAR development. These are really well worth looking at, and include topics such as Geofencing, Exemptions & Permits, Compliance, Achieving User Needs and Public Acceptance, things to consider when implementing an UVAR.

The UVARBox project is working to support the digitisation of UVARs. This is increasingly important as the digital data will facilitate UVARs being included in navigation tools such as Satellite Navigation Systems or mobile phone Apps, which drivers and vehicle operators are increasingly relying on to know where they can drive. Drivers can't comply with schemes they don't know about! We would encourage all public authorities to make contact with UVARBox, either through the UVARBox website or via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,.

CLARS members receive updates on ReVeAL and UVAR Box work through newsletters.

Who we are

The Platform is run by Lucy Sadler, with 25 years experience in air quality policy, including as the head of air quality for the city of London and 20 years experience of Low Emission Zones.

Any queries, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., details below. A leaflet pdf about membership can be downloaded here for further dissemination.

You may also be interested in the CIVITAS e-course on Urban Access Regulations freely available for all. Please have a look!

 Submitting information for the public website www.urbanaccessregulations.eu

If you have information on a scheme that should be included on the public website, please download a template to fill in here and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If possible, please fill the template in in English, the main language of the website. However, the template can also be translated with our translator, and filled in in your own language.

Here are some external weblinks you may also find useful, in addition to the city and country websites. Please note, we take no responsibility for external websites.

We have information on urban charging schemes. Other websites provide other information (no responsibility is taken for external websites):

European public transport travel planners
European national travel planners, local transport operators,

Global map of public transport
See what public transport is available. Not all cities are available, zoom in to get the transport lines. Press the play button, and the dots move according to timetable.

Choosing the right transport method
The EU's Do The Right Mix website

More efficient driving
The EU's Green Driving Tool, that helps you to reduce fuel costs and to select a suitable type of car for your purposes/journeys while reducing CO₂ emissions

European motorway tolls
From the UK Automobile Association: www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/overseas/european_tolls_select.jsp

From the hire car company Sixt: www.sixt.com/toll-roads/

Coach Parking Sites:
A German-based website for European coach parking sites: http://busparkplatz.eu/
Interactive map for parking in London: www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/coach-drivers

Lorry Parking Site: The IRU website provides truck parking sites within its TRANSPark site: http://www.iru.org/transpark-app
Car Parking Information: Information on parking throughout Europe can be found on www.en.parkopedia.com/
European Commission, Clean Urban Transport page
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/index_en.htm

European Commission, Urban Mobility Package
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/ump_en.htm

UK Highways Agency Traffic Information page
www.highways.gov.uk/traffic-information

UK heavy goods vehicle (HGV) levy
https://www.gov.uk/hgv-levy (must be paid before driving a non UK registered HGV into the UK)

Dieselnet.com
A useful source of information on diesel exhaust emissions, emission control technologies, emission standards, regulations etc.
Emissions Analytics EQUA Air Quality Index allows you to identify the vehicle with the lowest fuel use, CO₂, or nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions in actual road conditions.

Who we are:

This website is provided by the CLARS (Charging, Low Emission Zones, other Access Regulation Schemes). It is provided by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH. It builds on the successful Low Emission Zone in Europe Network (LEEZEN) which has provided this website previously (under the address www.lowemissionzones.eu), also run by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH. 

The CLARS website provides information urban access regulation schemes; including urban road user tolling, Low Emission Zones and other access restriction schemes. These are the regulations that many towns and cities use to improve their air quality, noise, traffic and quality of life issues. We are the truly 1 stop shop on urban access regulations called for by the industry. We also support cities and other public authorities with their access regulation schemes, see our CLARS Platform page.

We are funded through Additional Services, Licence Fees and Sponsorship. 

If you would like more information on urban access regulations, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. about our additional services.

If you find our website useful, even if you don’t need any of the services above, please consider sponsoring us. Without funding, we cannot continue giving you the information you need.

Additional services can include:

• Our data, including in different formats or summarised, or certain types of schemes 
• Details of the increasing numbers Zero Emission Zones
• Electric Vehicle and other propulsion advantages / disadvantages in Urban Access Regulations and Urban areas.
• Our website provides information on confirmed schemes. We also have information on future not yet n-confirmed schemes
• Access to our data for other purposes
• Additional features on the website, perhaps upon login.
• or anything else on access regulations, as we are likely to have that too!

Please may I take the opportunity to remind you that the data on our website is covered by database copyright, and all rights are reserved. No part of the website may be reproduced, transmitted, or utilised in any form or by any means for purposes other than personal use without written permission from ourselves. For more information, see our Terms and Conditions.

If you are interested in any of the above please contact us.

Keep up to date: If you are interested in receiving our newsletter, please send me an email, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you want to contact someone about any of the access regulation schemes, then please contact the individual city. The city and further information websites are given on the individual city page.

This website was funded from 23rd December 2013 to 22nd December 2017 within a contract with the European Union. From 23rd December 2017 the website is run on a Commercial funding basis by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH.

Impressium/Contacts

Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH VAT no: DE 31 64 63 385. Email: contact us. Webaddress: www.airqualitypolicy.eu

LEZs in the following countries require action before you enter the zone. The situation for each country is listed below, in alphabetical order. 

A separate sticker is required per country. With the exception that the Swiss scheme accepts the French stickers, and any future CZ schemes would accept the German stickers.

For all low emission zones, a single Sticker is valid for each country. In Italy, the only low emission zone that requires a sticker are those for the Bolzano Province in Italy, where there is a single sticker for the whole region). 

   

Please note:
Please allow enough time for the sticker to reach you. At times of high demand to foreign addresses it can take up to a few weeks.
Do not get caught out by scam Sticker Sellers!! Please also note, for the lowest cost stickers, please buy stickers from the official sources linked to on this website. There are both fake sites and sites that charge up to 5 times as much as the official websites linked from our website.

Austria: windscreen stickers are increasingly needed in the Austrian LEZs. Stickers are required for Vienna and Niederösterreich, and we recommend getting a sticker for heavy duty vehicles in Austria. In the Austrian LEZs where a sticker is not yet required, you need to show your vehicle papers if controlled.

Belgium, foreign vehicles registered abroad need to register, as well as some other categories, eg some retrofitted vehicles if the retrofit is needed to meet the required standard. Belgian and Dutch vehicles do not, in general, need to register. See our Belgian pages.

Czech Republic: in Prague you will need a windscreen sticker (likely to be able to be either a Czech or German one) once the LEZ starts.

Denmark: all heavy duty vehicles require a sticker, see our Danish pages.

Finland: in Helsinki the LEZs affect only public authority vehicles, under their own arrangements.

France: all vehicles require a Crit Air sticker, see our French pages. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is controlled manually at the toll point, Euro standard is estimated by proof of the age of the vehicle.

Germany: a windscreen sticker is required for all vehicles in all German LEZs. Stickers [Umweltplakette in German] can be bought from garages, testing stations [TÜV], the LEZ city administration, or online, for example from Berlin city.

Greece: in Athens control is manually through vehicle papers, no need to register.

Italy: You only need a sticker in Bolzano-Bozen Autonomous Province , see our Bolzano page. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is controlled manually at the toll point, Euro standard is estimated by proof of the age of the vehicle.

The Netherlands: Dutch vehicles are registered through the national database, no need to register.

Norway: you need to ensure that you pay the tolls for your vehicle. See for example the Oslo LEZ page. 

Portugal: Lisbon control is manually through vehicle papers, no need to register.

Spain: Barcelona and Madrid have emergency smog schemes and Barcelona will have an LEZ. In Madrid parking fees vary by emissions. Get a sticker from the authorities.

Sweden vehicles with existing exemptions need to have a windscreen sticker, no need to register.

UK: In London, British vehicles (not Northern Irish, Channel Island etc) are registered through the national vehicle database. The following vehicles, not on this database need to register separately. Registration makes sure that the authorities have the information on which vehicles comply.

• retrofitted,
• early complying,
• foreign vehicles and
• Northern Irish, Channel Island vehicles

Outside London so far the LEZs in operation affect only public authority vehicles, under their own arrangements.

There are a number of fictions about Low Emission Zones. This document looks to clarifies some of them and separates fact from fiction.

 

 

Fiction: You must buy a special sticker at a newsagent or Berlin office to be able to drive into Berlin by car.
FACT: There is the same LEZ sticker Germany- wide, and this can be bought on the web (see for example TÜV), by post, person and web from any LEZ authorities and many other German towns. It can also be bought from any TÜV station (annual vehicle inspection agency, at least one in each town). Many hotels in LEZ cities also offer to order the stickers on behalf of their guests, if they get the documents needed in advance.

Fiction: My windscreen will be filled with different stickers.
FACT: For each country which requires stickers, there is one sticker per country.
Stickers are only required for German, French, Spanish, and Danish LEZs and one Italian LEZ.  Stickers are required in Sweden only for very old exemptions. If there are to be low emission zones in the Czech Republic, it is expected that the German sticker will also be valid.

Fiction: There is no cost benefit analysis undertaken for Low Emission Zones.
FACT: Cities that implement LEZs have air quality action plans. This means that they will have assessed their air quality, identified the emissions sources, identified a package of measures to deal with air pollution, and assessed whether a LEZ is an effective measure to implement. In some countries the process towards an LEZ is more formalised, such as in the Dutch roadmap, which sets out what sets need to be taken to implement an LEZ, and under what conditions it can be implemented. However in each LEZ city it will have been assessed and identified as an effective air quality management measure.

Fiction: There is no co-ordination of Low Emission Zones.
FACT: In every country with more than one LEZ there is a national LEZ framework (see here for an outline of each of these national LEZ frameworks). In Germany there is also co-ordination within the Bundesländer (regions), which generally have LEZs with the same emissions standards. The exception is Italy. In Italy there is often regional co-ordination, which can allow for rules for local towns to be more strict than the regional standard. However this is tolling, and a number of regions, for example Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna now have more rigid frameworks, also setting out future plans. Information on all LEZs in Europe can be found on www.urbanaccessregulations.eu.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones are often implemented at short notice.
FACT: Most LEZs are notified at least a year in advance. Some of the German LEZs have been announced more shortly, but therefore often introductory phases with a wider range of exemptions and warning letters instead of penalty notices being issued. The exception is Italy, where in some cases short notice is given of implementation or re-implementation / continuation of a time-limited or winter LEZ.

Fiction: Access to an Low Emission Zone depends on how many children or cars you have.
FACT: This is not the case. In Germany there are ‘hardship’ exemptions that can be applied for. These ‘hardship exemptions’ are for little businesses that can prove that their existence would be threatened by buying a new vehicle, or those on low incomes who can prove that they cannot afford to buy a new vehicles. The definition of low incomes is usually taken from the German legal system, and depends on income levels and the number of people dependent on that income. This is usually for vehicles for which there is no retrofit possible. In Italy, as well as other countries, there is sometimes grants towards scrapping and replacing vehicles for those on low incomes.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones are just there to penalise motorists.
FACT: LEZs are implemented as a part of a wider ranging air quality action plan, looking at reducing emissions from many sources. These other sources can include factories, households, construction, shipping, railways, as well as road transport. Find out more from our "what else is being done to reduce pollution" page. LEZs are implemented to improve air quality which improves health, which affects all, particularly children, the elderly, those in poor health and drivers – see our LEZ background pages for more information.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones have no impacts, and impacts have not been assessed.
FACT: Many LEZs have undertaken post-implementation assessments. The assessments have shown positive impacts on air quality. In some cases there has been marginal impact on one pollutant, but more significant impacts on the other. A selection of LEZ impacts can be found on this page.

Fiction Low Emission Zones are purely environmental measures that take no account of economic or social factors
FACT: LEZs are implemented after careful consideration, as stated above. In all LEZs the emissions standards are chosen to be minimum possible to achieve the air quality improvements needed. LEZs often allow vehicles to be retrofitted with a diesel particulate filter to allow lower cost compliance. Social and economic factors are also taken into account in different ways in different countries. The methods can vary due to the different vehicles affected. For example in Germany and the Netherlands there have been grants towards retrofitting vehicles and hardship exemptions if the vehicle operator can prove they cannot afford to meet the emissions standards. In Italy some LEZs do not operate in the middle of the day, allowing those that are unable to provide access, but with less flexibility. In London occasional access can be gained by paying a daily charge. LEZs ensure that public transport still works to allow people access to the cities.

Fiction: All Low Emission Zones apply to cars.
FACT: The vehicles affected by LEZs vary around Europe, but they are usually focused on heavier vehicles. Few LEZs affect cars, see the city pages for further information.