Are night-time environmental zones coming?
The Berlin Green Party recently presented a proposal to equalise the traffic congestion in the capital. The idea is to shift delivery and commercial traffic to the night-time hours. According to Antje Kapek, transport spokesperson for the Greens, this proposal should help to ensure that delivery vehicles, refuse collection, care services and doctors get stuck less in congested and parked-up streets during the day. Low-noise and low-emission lorries could increasingly drive into cities at night and on special routes.
The idea of night-time environmental zones is new in Germany and is probably still completely unknown to most of us. But anyone who has ever been on holiday in Italy by car will be familiar with them:
Rome, Venice, Pisa, Trevisio, Celano, Bari or Savigliano. All of these cities have at least an active daytime driving ban for certain vehicles. Conversely, there are also night-time driving bans for other road users. You can imagine it as if our German low emission zones were divided into two parts during the day. In addition, there are of course exceptions on certain days of the week or public holidays at certain times, and all this only with registration. Chaos is inevitable.
What would it mean in concrete terms if lorries were only allowed to make deliveries at night? First of all, the shops receiving deliveries would have to employ additional staff to accept the deliveries, which would incur additional costs. A parcel hub or a locker would be one solution, but is not an option for every shop. What happens to perishable goods such as food that need to be refrigerated?
Anyone living in a big city knows how loud it can be even at night in the city with the 'few' vehicles. When delivery lorries are still driving and loading goods, sleep is no longer an option.
Low emission zones could have a positive effect on air quality. Less traffic during the day means fewer traffic jams. This means fewer arrivals and departures and less particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and CO2 are emitted. But what seems logical at first glance can have the exact opposite effect. If delivery traffic no longer clogs up the roads during the day and driving becomes more attractive again, others who previously used public transport could start driving more again.
Whichever way you look at it. The Berlin Greens' idea is unconvincing: more costs, more noise, more air pollution. That's no way to achieve a turnaround in transport and clean air for everyone.