Lille joins Paris in vehicle ban amid pollution spike
The Nord city of Lille (Hauts-de-France) has joined Paris to ban the most polluting vehicles from its roads today (Wednesday February 27) for the first time ever, due to a spike in levels of fine particle pollution.
The restrictions apply to vehicles that have a Crit鈥橝ir rating of 4 or 5, or that are unclassified. Only cars with a rating of 0, 1 and 3 are permitted. Crit鈥橝ir clean air stickers are legally required in some cities in France, to identify a vehicle鈥檚 emission levels.
This is Lille has taken the step to ban the most polluting cars, on the third consecutive day of a breach of the permitted threshold for fine particle pollution.
The fine particles in question are known as PM10, and are deemed to be among the most harmful to human respiratory health.
In the Ile-de-France area, the restrictions apply specifically to the interior of the A86 motorway. Between the hours of 5h30 and midnight, only vehicles with a Crit鈥橝ir rating of 0-3 are allowed.
In Lille, the restrictions are covering around a dozen communes, including the centre of town.
The restrictions were put in place in Paris on Tuesday this week, after air quality monitoring network Airparif advised that the acceptable threshold for fine particles had been breached for three days in a row.
Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said that she would call to apply such restrictions once a 鈥渟pike鈥� in pollution had been identified, despite government transport aide Christophe Najdovski that the State had not taken enough preventative measures.
The capital鈥檚 police department said that there had 鈥渁lready been measures in place鈥� to reduce pollution since the end of last week, including a drop of 20 kph of the maximum speed allowed on the motorways in Ile-de-France.
In a statement, police : 鈥淢ore than 22,000 vehicles were checked [under this change], and 6,644 infractions were counted.鈥�
Other measures include a ban on chimneys in Paris and surrounding areas, a ban on bonfires of 鈥済reen waste鈥�, and various further 鈥減rescriptions鈥� for the industrial sector.
The situation is expected to improve by tomorrow (Thursday February 28) due to a change in wind direction, that should 鈥渄isperse the pollution鈥�, Airparif.
