Munich plans ban of highly pollutive vehicles

This Wednesday the Munich City Council (Stadtrat) will debate a general ban of all gasoline-driven vehicles without catalyzer and of diesel-driven vehicles that fulfill Euro I emission standard only. Such vehicles will not be allowed inside the area defined by the Mittlerer Ring - without exceptions. They will be allowed on the Mittlerer Ring itself.

This regulation would apply to app. 40.000 vehicles as well as 52% of all commercial trucks registered in Munich, some 14.000. Cars built as late as 1996 can fall in these categories, it is worth you while to check on your car's specifications! From January 2010 on, vehicles fulfilling Euro II emission standard only will also be banned.
These measures are meant to reduce the particulate matter according to EU standards as the official limit of 50 µg/m³ is currently exceeded on more than 35 days per year.

(overview of the last five days)
There are, however, doubts whether such a general ban will be feasible and will be confirmed by the Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht) should a single car driver decide to sue claiming discrimination.

good
far too many flippin cars on the road, they should ban them altogether

This is something that has already been implemented in Rome (as well as Milan, IIRC) and all it's taken is random police checkpoints for this to work. As Euro I's are old cars, they're relatively easy to pick out too.

There goes your lift to work then...

well, exceptions can be made in cases of need, obv

An interesting attitude considering a large part of the population of Munich make their living from the manufacture and sale of said cars.

I just had a peek at the specs of our Munich-built (well, actually Leipzig-built) car, Euro IV, we're safe. Good thing we invested 500€ in the special diesel filter.

@allershausen - they could go and work in bike factories, or in public transport instead

I suspect they would need slightly less people to build a pushbike than a BMW!

So the less well off (who own older cars) will have to use public transport, walk or take a bike.

Will any consideration be give to home-visit nurses etc, whom own older cars but need them to carry out vital work in the community?

Maybe Topsy could start a rickshaw business to help out the aforementioned (for free of course )

Related topic from last year: Brummies to be banned from Munich.

No exceptions? Yeah, that's realistic. No moving vans, no petrol carrying tankers, no heavy constructin equipment or the trucks to bring them to their locations. It'll be be interesting watching building sites go back to hemp rope and tackle for lifting and having their bricks, steel glass and sheetrock delivered in little Kangos.

woof.

obv exceptions can be made in cases of need, as stated - single mothers, doctors, health workers, SiM etc, as well as delivery vans and construction vehicles (obv )

I personally find it ludicrous that you're encouraged to recycle your carrier bags and put every titchy bit of paper or "biomüll" in the right bin, while at the same time virtually everybody in big companies above a certain level gets a gas-guzzling tank to drive around in as a perk

This is not good... considering I'm just about to collect my new car (well not new but 16 years old) tonight. Guess first on the agenda is a KAT upgrade

Bear in mind that even the biggest company cars you see out there pollute less than the myriads of other crappy little cars.

but cutting down on the overall number of cars would be far more beneficial to the environment than recycling your flippin biomüll, that's my point, really

Hybrid technology. The way of the future. Will cut down on inner city pollution levels immediately. Why not consider the alternatives?

I almost bought one but unfortunately the price was a little high for me. Damn fine technology though

Klicken Sie hier: "Catalytic converter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

Info on the cat for all you car interested people.Hope the link works.

If we could only get some a/c over here available outside of the car in ole Germany that would be a break though.

So, when you have a car (assuming you do not) you are willing to give it up?

What about aircraft, they pollute terribly, leaving very complex and long lived CFCS in the upper atmosphere that take years to break down. (So next time you want your star-fruit in the middle of December, so that your Christmas party cocktails will look cool, think about it as that is how the aformentioned fruit will have been transported!! ) Cars account for around 3 or 4% total of pollution.

Where did you read your statistical comparison whereby you state that reducing the number of cars would benefit the enviroment more than mull recycling? Did it take into account the type of damage it does to a specific area of the enviroment or does it take into account any pollution released as a result of any reprocessing cycle. If so, what type of toxins does the reprocessing cycle release, in what quantity and how damaging are these compared to any given alternative?

What about the water evaporation problem. Some parts of the world have seen a 33% drop in sunlight strength which was as a result of particulates in the clouds bonding rain-drops to make them much larger than usual. The result was that more sunlight was reflected away from earth and thus reproduced a cooling effect. There were 2 different studies using 2 different means over 20 years that came to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, because we have reduced the amount of particulates, the raindrops are reverting to their normal size and thus more sunlight is reaching the earths surface. The result of this is that we will almost certainly see an even larger rise in temperature than previously thought (computer modelling shows that in 50-60 years, at the current rate, the UK will have summer temperatures in excess of 45 deg!!!

(I should not watch so many scientific programmes on tv )

yeah, there are lots of things that we could/should do to combat pollution - reducing the number of cars being only one of them

no, i don't have a car, btw
don't even have a driver's licence, i've never even driven a car

Dear Topsy. Have a look at this LINK.. It will tell you all about what those mean and nasty car-making people are doing to keep car-hating people like you happy (or at least preventing you from moaning as much.. )


You will not stop everybody using their cars (and it would be in your own interests to ensures a certain person keeps using his apparently), but you can take steps to make them more fuel efficient and cleaner, especially for inner-city driving.

Yep, that would be the one, ban everything i have nothing to do with then ?

Not a NIMBY then ? Sad, very, very sad

I support the council on this. I DO have though to "jump over my own shadow" mind and say Canaryman has his finger on it slightly. This will most likely effect poorer working class drivers who NEED a car to get to work, think night shifts etc.

You have to balance that mind against the needs of people who live near the most badly effected areas.
A cursory look at the map show correlations between working class housing areas in the inner city eg, the east of GBV along the Auenstrasse and the area around the south of the HBF.

Piddle off - I only brought it up cos canaryman had a go at me along the lines of "yeah, give up your own car, would you"
Not capable of reading, then? Sad, very very sad...

Does anyone know if central London has 'cleaned up' since the introduction of congestion charging? Might be an idea for Munich as well if it has.

When I camearrived here that's exactly what I did. Best decision I ever made. It certainly improved the environment of my bank account.

i'd do it despite the cost if i ever buy a car or return to the states. that would be worth it to me.

Do you mean was it something like this:
http://www.theaircar.com/

Yes, hm... former Formula 1 constructor engineer Guy Negré (France) is a great man... all my respect!
That car works with AIR. Compressed air. Cool, no?

http://www.theaircar.com/MiniCats.html

I love their motto "welcome to the future"... lovely!

Yes it has.
www.tfl.gov.uk will have the details.

Bear in mind also that ALL on street parking within the Munich Mittlerer Ring will have to be paid for from 2007 at the latest. This will cut car journeys (and pollution) into Munich and car journey within Munich.

All brought to you by lovely SPD-Green-Rosa Liste controlled Munich City Council.

If Germany did not have such a bullshit economy, and less socialist bollocks laws about hiring and firing, then there would be 100 times less crappy small businesses driving about in munich in small vans. The amount of bleedin' small family run contruction firms here is just unreal, and they all have crap vans.

Yeah like the highly de-regulated UK economy has no people driving round in crap vans either DR hey!

If you don't like the UK, then why don't you leave??

Oh yeah...

No, I mean technology that can be applied to existing cars that actually look like cars instead of these stupid futuristic bubble thingies that have come straight out of a 60's sci-fi movie and could be destroyed by pigeons shitting on the roof.

Fascists!

Any reference for this for more details?

It was in the SZ a couple of weeks ago.

By the end of 2007, the council's plan is to have ALL on-street parking (roughly) payable into street parking meters. Residents can buy a permit (€30 anually) valid in their local area only to allow them to park.

The idea is to reduce the number of cars not just from outside of Munich into the city but also within the city.

So it is effectively a congestion charge like in London.

So if you want to cut down on the traffic in town, and as a knock on benefit all emisions, why not copy places like Bagio in the Phillipines.
Depending on the number your vehicle registration ends with, you cannot drive it in the city centre on a particular day.

So if it ends 1 or 2, you are forbidden on Monday
3 or 4 - Tuesday
5 or 6 - Wednesday
7 or 8 - Thursday
9 or 0 - Friday

And if you live in town, you're OK as long as its parked, in trouble as soon as you drive.
A lot easier to police I would say that having mobile testing units or having to look under the car/truck/bus - even the plods here can read numbers can't they?

They tried an odd/even regulation in 1972/1973 here and in Austria after the Oil Crisis Scare. It got dropped after a while.

Excuse but...why would BMW suffer for this? On the contrary they will sell you beautiful cars Euro XXI (or whatever standard they will reach by that date) and you will be happy (and poor) driving the usual gasoline-burning cars.

Egg-zackly. I made sure that our new car was state of the art - not of any special consideration of Munich and its environmental worries but because I thought - if they have it, we get it. Basta. I'm of an age that I can imagine grandchildren running across grassy meadows and breathing in clean white and blue air without choking.

Thank you, Topsy! Now I know I'm not alone.

If I lived in Munich then I would not bother with a car. I, however do not live in Munich so I need a car. I do not drive it into Munich, I use the train.(It costs me more, especially as I have use of free parking in Munich 5 mins from the city centre). I can take an educated guess and say that a lot of the "cars, cars, get them off the road, hooray, I do not have a car" brigade accept lifts from those of their friends that do have cars.(Especially in the winter).

And my guess is that your guess is less educated than you think. Many people do rely on public transport and on their own two feet whatever the season.

Canaryman, I lived 12 years here without a car and in that time probably took about 7 car rides per year, with at least one per year being to the mountains for skiing with a full load of passengers.

i hardly ever got lifts in cars until i met SiM, i don't know many people with cars, tbh
since he drives more or less past my house to get to work (which is more or less next door to my work) then I do get a lift with him quite often, just cos:
1. it makes me get to work early, which is "a good thing"
2. it's a good opportunity to have a natter and laugh with SiM, which is also "a good thing" cos he's my mate and he's FAB
but if one of us got another job then i'd go back to public transport, which i used without any bother for the first 10 years that i lived here

Like I said, if I lived in Munich I would definately not bother with a car. I know 5 people in Munich that are all professionals and none of them own a car. They hire a car if they are going on holiday or to visit someone outside Munich, which is exactly what I would do. Unfortunately, where I live, we have 1 bus a day to Freising and one back (unless I could disguise myself as a school pupil ). (Cycling is out of the question due to my back problem as is walking for any long distances, so I have to have a car but, I dont drive it in Munich and I drive my wife to the local train station and back on a daily basis (about 6km round trip).

Kay, I would love to be able to cycle and walk long distances but as I explained above, not everyone has a fully fit "pair of feet"...it would be great if we did though

Well, they could improve the design a little bit... true. I was sure that no male would be happy about the way those cars look like...
Even if I could afford one, and let's say I had more driving practice than I have... I'd think twice if I want to drive around in a bubble like that - but, maybe in 20 years it will become a fashion, so nobody will have a problem with it. Or, they put the same engine into a nicer design... dream on.

Well I got 60% of my way through this thread before I found this pile of shite!

Sorry DR.. I am one of them companies you have had a pop at! All of our vehicles have been fitted with CATs and are as efficient as possible.. We offer a service that the niether the multi-nationals nor the local "one man band" outfit cannot supply.

So what do you suggest we do with our buisnes?

G

This system has been (still is?) used in Ital;y with either a Odd or Even number as the last number of the carreg.

What did the Italians do - they bought Two cars

I think that they should ban all SUV's from the Munich's roads and maybe consider multiple occupancy lanes (take a look the next time your in a traffic jam and see how may cars have just One person in them.

It's the feckers with no one in them that piss me off.. It can take me 20 minutes to find a parking space at times.