Urban vehicle access regulations (UVARs) is a form of traffic management that regulates access in specific urban locations according to vehicle type, age, emissions category – or other factors such as time of day, or day of the week. UVARs can include Low Emission Zones (LEZs) and/ or Congestion Charging and involve a wide range of considerations in implementation.
Urban vehicle access regulations are becoming an increasingly popular method of managing vehicle flows through urban areas.
Eltis recently reported that the UK city of Birmingham plans to restrict vehicular access to the city centre in an effort to reduce air pollution and promote mode change. The Birmingham transport plan has been modelled on ideas that were first introduced in Ghent’s zone-centred traffic circulation plan of 2017.
Birmingham has become the latest city in the UK to introduce a series of measures that aim to reduce pollution from road transport.
Birmingham's measures appeared in a draft transport plan, which included removing through-traffic from the city centre. Only car traffic that had a destination within the city would be able to drive within city. These cars would need to comply with the requirements of the city's Clean Air Zone, meaning that drivers would have to pay a fine if their vehicles did not meet the specified vehicle emission standards.
The Lille Metropole authority is implementing a restrictive Low Emission Zone (LEZ) alongside a massive €2 billion investment plan for short- and long-term public transport infrastructure and services.
Municipalities in The Netherlands are to apply harmonised rules for their Low Emission Zone's (LEZ's). From 1 January 2020, national regulation applies to LEZ's, putting an end to the increasing variety in local rules for each individual LEZ. The harmonised rules allow municipalities to instate a LEZ in order to improve air quality while providing motorists with clarification of the access regulations and enforcement that apply to local LEZ's.
Lack of harmonisation
January 2020 will bring a significant change to many European inner-city streets. As of 1 January 2020, new urban vehicle access regulations (UVARs) are being introduced and many existing regulations are to be tightened in cities across Europe.
Cities affected by changes in January 2020 include;
All towns in Spain with more than 50,000 inhabitants would have to set up low emission zones, if the plans of the largest party in Spain are put in place. While negotiations about a possible coalition are ongoing, the plans are timed to come into effect with the formal installation in power of the new government.
From the start of 2020, the Spanish city of Barcelona and its adjacent municipalities, will ban the most polluting vehicles from their roads on weekdays between 7.00 and 20.00. This will affect around 50,000 cars and motorbikes whose owners would face heavy fines if they are caught using their vehicle on the area's roads.
In light of the rapid development of UVARs in the EU, an information tool is considered by the European Parliament to be a useful instrument for people travelling within the EU.
Consequently, DG MOVE has announced a new preparatory action with the general objective to foster the real-time information of road users about urban and regional access schemes.
The specific objective of this tender is to:
