CDA
December 28, 2022
The new Sustainable Mobility Law already includes the possibility that large cities can establish a toll to access the center.
First it has been the creation of low emission zones (ZBA) in the center of large cities in order to banish the most polluting cars from these areas (and at the same time increase the collection of city councils, which fine those vehicles that are prohibited from accessing).
However, the final objective seems to be that both cars and motorcycles, especially combustion ones, gradually lose their status in the big capitals and public transport is the great beneficiary.
It is up to the city council to implement it or not
In this sense, it has been rumored for a long time, as some cities do, London being the best example of this, the implementation of a kind of toll that would be charged to those vehicles that wanted to access the center of large cities.
In fact, the new Sustainable Mobility Law, which has just been approved by the Council of Ministers, and which has to be ratified by the Cortes Generales, already delves into this assumption. This new regulation, which could come into force as early as 2023, includes the possibility that all those municipalities that have established low emission zones can charge some type of fee to some of the vehicles that circulate through it.
Highway tolls: you will pay to use the highway in 2024
The text of the regulation establishes that it is something that each city council has to decide and does not specify what type of vehicles will be affected or the amount of the toll. What is clear is that With this regulation, a legal umbrella is already established so that each consistory can do so.
Let us remember that on January 1, 2023, the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law enters into force, which establishes the obligation to establish the aforementioned low emission zones in all Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants which, at present, are 149 locations.
