New York: "Private Sheriffs" against air polluters
New York has had enough of truck drivers who stand around with their engines running and pollute the air. Anyone who displays such a vehicle receives a sum of money.
Tag: Penalties
Low Emission Zone: Penalty Tickets for Ukraine Refugees
For more than ten years, you have needed a fine dust sticker if you drive your car in the city centre of Hanover. The residents of Hanover know this, but not refugees from Odessa on the Black Sea. A refugee couple with a child has now received a ticket in Hanover because they did not have the appropriate environmental sticker on their car.
Next rip-off: new car and truck tolls
The calculation is very simple: if more and more combustion cars are taken out of circulation and more and more drivers switch to electric vehicles, the tax revenues collected from the sale of mineral oil will decrease. By 2030, these revenues will even fall by around 50 percent compared to 2020. In concrete figures: Revenues will drop by 13 billion euros.
Over 200 cars use closed Jungfernstieg
Since mid-October 2020, the Jungfernstieg on Hamburg's Binnenalster has been closed to traffic. But many drivers still ignore this ban.
Brenner Pass: High costs for old vehicles
The governor of South Tyrol has submitted a concept to the government in Rome that is intended to re-regulate transit traffic over the Brenner Pass. The digital system is supposed to make traffic more environmentally friendly and the air cleaner.
The dark side of e-cars
Over the last five years, various countries in the EU have been trying to make the entire value chain of a production compatible with human rights and environmental protection. In March 2021, the European Parliament agreed to a report to require due diligence also for companies with less than 1000 employees. This is seen as an invitation to the EU Commission to draft a corresponding law.
Fines in Germany too low
When comparing the fines for traffic offenders in Europe, it is striking how little one actually has to pay in Germany. This also applies to unauthorised entry into environmental zones or other closed roads. In the past, there was even a point in Flensburg for this, but this has been abolished in the meantime, as the road safety of road users is not considered to be at risk. Nevertheless, the question arises as to the efficiency of environmental zones when, firstly, there are hardly any checks and, secondly, fines are rarely collected.
Austria: Stricter environmental zones for all trucks and cars
Austria's current climate plan will not be enough to meet the EU targets by 2030 and thus reduce CO2 emissions by 7 percent. Now it is being discussed whether the rules of the environmental zones should be tightened. Then, for example, only trucks with a registration from 2020 would be allowed in Tyrol. But that will not be enough to combat air pollution. One solution would be to extend the rules to other vehicle classes such as passenger cars.
Low emission zones for taxis - only electric allowed
It was a shock for Leipzig taxi drivers and a harbinger of things to come for the taxi industry: in mid-October, the city of Leipzig announced the goal of converting the city's taxi fleet completely to electric or at least hybrid by 2025. The quick fix backfired, but it shows what we can expect in the near future.
Berlin's air is getting cleaner and cleaner
Berlin's air has been sung about, but that was a long time ago. And back then it was far from dirty. But there is reason for hope. As has now been measured, it has never been so clean since measurements began in 1975. New limits, however, could prove to be a challenge.
