LUIS F. DURÁN Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 01:09

  • Mobility Goodbye to warning periods: fines begin in Madrid LEZ and Sinesio Delgado

The notice period has ended. Since yesterday, Monday, the Madrid City Council has officially fined 200 euros to cars without a label from outside the capital that circulate on the M-30 and inside the ring road after the expansion of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ). Since September, the offending cars have been notified of the fine, although they were spared the financial penalty. Vehicles that do not have the environmental label (A) are passenger cars and light vans prior to January 2000 and diesel vehicles prior to 2006. It does not affect goods vehicles or motorcycles without a label. Vehicles without labels registered in the capital or that pay the Mechanical Traction Tax in the city, as set out in the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance, are also exempt from the restriction.

It should be remembered that on 1 January 2024, Madrid's LEZ was extended to the outside of the M-30, thus covering the entire municipality - until now it was limited exclusively to the M-30 and central almond. However, cars without a sticker driving on the outer ring of the M-30 will not be fined until July this year.

The objective of this phase is to inform and warn drivers who are prohibited from access and circulation so that they correct this practice and are not sanctioned for driving outside the ring road without an environmental badge. In other words, from January 1, 2024 until 23:59 p.m. on June 30, 2024, drivers who break the rule will receive an informative communication.

The automated control of poisonous cars will be carried out with the 257 cameras that, for now, make up the entire traffic control system for the interior of the M-30 and the road itself. This is in addition to the 37 photo-red cameras of the traffic lights that are distributed throughout the city. In a few days, the implementation of the remaining 207 cameras to control the exterior of the M-30 will be completed, totaling almost 500.

The acquisition and installation of the cameras and the rest of the elements of the system have been financed by the European Union through the Next Generation EU funds. A subsidy of 5.7 million euros has been received from the Recovery and Resilience Plan to provide aid to municipalities for the implementation of low emission zones. The aim of this aid is to achieve the Green Deal in order for Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent and to become a modern and resource-efficient economy. The funding has been obtained through the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.

Since September 15, 2023, the Madrid City Council has been informing drivers of vehicles without a tag intercepted by the cameras of the Madrid Low Emission Zone about the prohibition of entering the urban area of the M-30 or its ring road, stresses the Consistory.

In these four months of the warning period, the number of unauthorised accesses has gone from 2,039 potential sanctions registered between 15 and 30 September to 1,883 last December. In other words, of the 3.1 million accesses that occur every day, 0.1% are undue.

Following the amendment of the Law on Traffic, Circulation of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety, improper access to the Madrid LEZ, as well as to the Special Protection Low Emission Zones (ZBEDEP), has gone from being a minor infraction of 90 euros, which could be 45 euros for prompt payment, to a serious traffic penalty with a fine of 200 euros. that would be 100 in prompt payment, at present.

From 1 January 2025, the 2024 ban will also be extended to A or unlabelled cars domiciled in Madrid and registered in the IVTM register of the Madrid City Council. From this date, A vehicles other than passenger cars (trucks, vans, motorcycles and mopeds) will not be able to access or circulate in the capital either, and until December 31, 2024, they had no restrictions.