The Lyon metropolitan area will review its schedule of traffic bans, postponing the total ban on diesel-powered vehicles for two years.
Slowdown for the Lyon ZFE. This is not called into question, the rules have even been tightened on January 1, 2023, with the start of sanctions for Crit’Air 5 and unclassified vehicles. But Bruno Bernard, environmentalist president of the Métropole de Lyon, has indicated that the ban schedule will be relaxed.
In an interview with the magazine Tribune de Lyon, Bruno Bernard even made a big announcement on this calendar: the total ban on diesel vehicles, which corresponds to the Crit’Air 2 sticker, will be postponed for two years. Originally planned for 2026, it is now planned for 2028. He did not specify how the intermediate stages will change, whereas currently it is planned to ban Crit’Air 4 in 2024 and Crit’Air 3 in 2025 .
This looks like a big turnaround, quite surprising on the part of a metropolis with an eco-flag. With the newspaper Le Progrès, Bruno Bernard put forward two types of explanations. On the one hand, taking into account the acceptance of the measures in a context which has evolved considerably since the beginning of the establishment of the ZFE, with in particular the energy crisis. These rules often give rise to misunderstandings and concerns.
Then, Bruno Bernard points the finger at the State, which has discharged the question of the fight against pollution by sending it back to the metropolises, but these are not accompanied enough according to him. He declared in Le Progrès: “The installation of automated control radars for the ZFE has been postponed to the second half of 2024. There is a lack of political courage”.
Some will note, however, that the calendar also seems to be relaxing in view of the next municipal elections, set for 2026… the year in which diesel would therefore have been completely banned in Lyon. What a coincidence.
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