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Stuttgart (dpa) – In the fight against bad air by diesel cars makes Stuttgart serious with a driving ban and follows as the second German metropolis the example of Hamburg.
From 1 January 2019, owners of older diesel cars in the state capital of Baden-Württemberg will have to adapt to traffic bans. The green-black coalition of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Green) agreed on Wednesday after weeks of negotiations on driving bans for Euro-emission standard 4 diesel and worse.
Whether or not there are driving bans for young Euronorm 5 diesel engines from 2020, the coalition wants to make it dependent on the effect of a package control of air pollution. Among these possible prohibitions, however, the Euro 5 diesel must be exempted for a transitional period of two years, which has been modernized with software. For a hardware upgrade, the exception must persist permanently.
Stuttgart follows with the ban of Hamburg, where restrictions apply to diesel cars on two sections. In Stuttgart, however, they refer to the entire urban area. Since Stuttgart is home to car manufacturers such as Porsche and Daimler, driving bans are considered tricky here.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig decided in February of this year that bans on the circulation of air pollution are generally allowed if proportionality is respected. Since then, the country has been under intense pressure to act.
In the driving bans for Euro-4 diesel and worse, there should be a transition period until 1 April 2019 for residents. According to Andreas Schwarz, leader of the Green Party, a tariff reform of the VVS transport badociation will then be used to facilitate the transition to public transport.
Stuttgart has long struggled against far too high levels of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxides are gases that, among other things, can irritate the respiratory tract and the eyes. Environmental toxins occur in many combustion processes, mainly in road traffic from diesel engines.
The provincial government also had to make a decision because the Stuttgart Administrative Court had set a deadline of Monday (16.7.) To further explain their control of air pollution. The court demanded that the country take driving bans for the Euro 5 diesel with an appointment in the sanitation plan of Stuttgart.
The Minister of Transport, Winfried Hermann (Greens), announced, among other things, more express bus lines and better management of the parking space in Stuttgart. In total, the package of measures for air pollution costs 450 million euros, the majority of funding being already secured. There is an open sum of 105 million euros over ten years, which should be financed.
The Minister of Economy, Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut (CDU), raised many exceptions to traffic bans, such as delivery traffic and crafts. "We have agreed on a free permanent trip here." There are also exceptions for people working in teams, care services and micro-enterprises, who are threatened with bans in their lives.
German environmental aid (DUH), the government projects go far enough: "The clean air policy in Baden-Wuerttemberg is not determined by elected officials, but by Daimler, Porsche and Bosch, "said Jürgen Resch.
Prime Minister Kretschmann said that the agreement shows that the coalition is able to act. Previously, it had been speculated that the state government could break the issue of diesel bans.
According to the Federal Office of Transport (as at 1 January 2018), 534,573 diesel cars are registered in the Stuttgart region, in Böblingen, Esslingen, Göppingen, Ludwigsburg and in the district of Rems-Murr. 34% of them use the Euro 5 standard, which corresponds to 183,358 cars. In addition, 188,163 diesel cars are homologated according to Euro 1 to 4 standards. This corresponds to a share of 35% of all diesel cars.
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