New stricter regulations for Paris and Nancy
More and more environmental zones are coming into force in France this year. But existing zones are also being continuously expanded. Since the beginning of the month, there have been innovations in Paris and Nancy.
A few weeks ago, Paris surprised us with its plan to make its city centre car-free by the middle of next year. Already, on the first Sunday of every month, a small part of the city centre is closed to vehicles. And already, all vehicles without a sticker or a class 4 and 5 sticker no longer have access to Paris within the Périphérique, the ring road that surrounds the city centre. This inner-city environmental zone is surrounded by another one, which is bordered by the second motorway ring A86, in which a large part of the total of 79 municipalities in Île-de-France are located. Not all of these communes have joined the zone, however, creating a patchwork quilt that is safest traversed by putting a 3 sticker on your car so that you don't run the risk of driving into a zone closed to your own car. The rules in the areas inside or outside the A86 were previously not as strict as in the city centre within the Ring Périphérique, but now the municipalities inside the A86, which encloses a large part of the suburbs, are joining the strict rules of the city centre: from 1 June 2021, vehicles with a sticker 4 on the windscreen will no longer be allowed to drive here either; as in the city centre, only sticker classes 3, 2, 1 and E are now permitted.
In addition, there is a temporary environmental zone within the A86, which thus covers most of the conurbation and is only activated when air pollution is very high. In such a case, you can find out in advance via our Green Zones app and avoid a fine in good time. The prefect determines which vehicles and stickers are banned. In this case, the temporary zone overrides the rules that apply to the permanent environmental zone. However, the A86 itself is exempt from the ban, which can still be used with stickers 4 and 5.
Nancy in north-eastern France is not yet ready to introduce a permanent low emission zone. But because air pollution is increasing here too, they want to have the possibility to restrict car traffic at least during periods of increased pollution. Therefore, since 1 June 2021, a temporary low emission zone has been in force, which is activated in all 20 municipalities of Greater Nancy as soon as a certain limit of pollutants in the air is exceeded. Vehicles that do not have the correct sticker stuck to their windscreen at that time can be excluded from traffic by order of the prefect.
They have already been introduced, but you can find out when the temporary zones will be activated in Paris and Nancy by taking a look at our Green-Zones app.