an interesting read
Indeed! merci bien.
NO! They can’t abolish Crit’Air stickers - I shall have nothing to talk about!
Well there would be a how to remove it thread, glue residue can be a problem
I’d love to be able to get rid of mine. The colour clashes with the bodywork.
Not as much fun.
OTOH other stickers are available - our déchetterie here in Sud-Angleterre requires residents to have a sticker on the windscreen (renewed annually) to prove that they are a local and not some evil freeloading interloper from North-East Hampshire.
I am pleased to see that some communes in France have these vignettes as well - perhaps we can discuss where they should be affixed?
The 19 year old car that I just got rid of was worth €500. It has a level 2 Crit Air sticker. To suggest that people need to buy a new expensive car to comply is simply not true. Yes, a few people might to change to a compliant vehicle but that need not be expensive.
A few years ago I turned up at a recycling place near Camberley in a French registered hired van. I was expecting the full half hour argument and was surprised when I was waved in and pointed in the right direction.
Our lot in Witley (who are employed by the extremely French firm Suez BTW) do glance at the sticker, but are generally more interested in what you are depositing so they can tell you where to put it (in the nicest possible way).
I am in a UK car of course but I imagine the stickeriness would outweigh the number plate. They gave me the sticker purely on the basis of verbally confirming my postcode, there was no Gallic Inquisition.
Watch out folk… It’s not been made Law that you can scrape your Crit’Air stickers off… it’s the Commission which has given their verdict… there are more steps to take and the tide might turn again in favour of ZFE … who knows what the final outcome will be…
At the very least, it might grant some breathing space for all drivers.
I think the Crit’Air restrictions are OK in principle - the London ULEZ zone does seem to have reduced air pollution and particulates are definitely a danger for inner-city kids.
Keeping the oldest and most polluting vehicles out of city centres is not a bad thing. But I believe the plan was to gradually move the goalposts so that eventually only category zero or category 1 vehicles would be allowed.
How fast that would be done is going to be more of an issue for most people I think - I reckon there will be a lot of Category 2 vehicles around for quite some time.
Like all these kinds of rules some people will lose out - it’s a matter of balancing competing needs in a sensible manner (yes, I know, expecting politicians to do this…)
Breathing space is correct. The scientific evidence proves that LEZs improve air quality by significant amounts allowing people with breathing problems to breathe more easily. I for one hope they remain.
Any evidence?
In France the recent change of wind to open the door against ZFE’s seems to have respnded to two lines of thought now gaining traction :
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most ZFE’s, except for 3 major cities which might be Paris, Lyon snd I think Rouen, seem to have said this year they won’t be proceeding to the next step yet of excluding even more vehicles by tightening up, as they achieved levels of reduction in pollution with existing rules that have improved air quslity to the extent that this year they won’t need to implement further tightening.
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More importantly, and I think more Frenchly, there is mounting discussion that continuing with tightening to exclude more vehicles is risking social exclusion for too many. A recognition that many French fsmilies and smaller tradesmen are not against getting an EV or a very new vehicle for much less poillution. It’s just that they simply haven’t got the money and excluding so many un-rich people amounts to social segregation and exclusion of poorer people.
This is the new argument that apoears to be slowing down the approach to tighter ZFE’s.
Source : various aeticles this year on auto-moto.com
Interesting that the centre of London is now a ghost town so far as the presence of large numbers of ordinary people is concerned. The point about exclusion of non-rich people just does not seem to have bothered the British rulers in the same way
Well, coughing space for some
I think that has more to do with property prices than the ULEZ.
Also it was unaffordable to park in Central London (circa ÂŁ30 a day) even before ULEZ came in.
And public transport in (and into) London is pretty good compared with many places - that has had a lot of money thrown at it over the years.
They showed my local town on TF1 20h last night with a local tradesman who lives in the city centre saying he dosn’t know what he will do because his works vehicle isn’t new and he cannot afford an electric one as nowhere to charge it where he can keep an eye on it living in a flat and his peers all think the same. Don’t think certain ethnic groups here are going to take any notice, they already drive vehicles without insurance and CT stickers on them and know if the law picks them up they can play the race card.
~ I hope your locals don’t really get away with not having Insurance for the vehicle … ??
Thats his mindset, they are not asking everyone to buy EV’s would be nice though but just not a massive polluting vehicle running into certain cities with high population levels. 2nd hand vehicles are expensive in France compared to elsewhere though.