Berlin is looking to ban cars driving in the city almost completely in efforts to overcome its gridlock traffic.
A high court has ruled that people living in the German capital can vote next year on whether they should forbid most vehicles from passing through after years of campaigning.
If passed, this would see drivers only being allowed to drive into the city centre 12 days of the year.
However, the ban would exempt emergency services, taxis, buses, delivery vehicles and public service vehicles like rubbish collectors.
Cars would also be allowed to still use the ‘car-reduced’ zone on federally-run highways.
The ‘car-free Berlin’ campaign group proposed a referendum after gathering thousands of signatures but were blocked by the city government in 2022.
They argued that the proposal violated the German constitution but this was dismissed in Berlin’s high court yesterday.
The judge said that the referendum can go ahead if it meets all the usual requirements – namely, gathering 170,000 signatures, or seven per cent of the Berlin electorate, in the next three month.
More than 50,000 signatures have already been provided when the proposal first went to court in 2022.
If completed, the choice will make it onto the ballot paper for next year’s local elections.
It will then need to be voted in by at least half of voters representing a quarter of all eligible voters.
Berlin is not the only European city to have made efforts to ban cars.
Amsterdam has slowly been phasing out cars in an attempt to completely eradicate them in the city by 2030.
From 2020, they banned diesel cars older than 15 years inside an environmental zone, which was extended to public and private buses two years later.
This year, mopeds and motorcycles will also be banned.
Zermatt in Switzerland has banned private cars while Pontevedra in Spain has pedestrianised a large section of its city centre.
Venice has also typically always been car-free thanks to its many canals that run through the city.
While no UK cities currently have an outright ban on cars, there are various iterations of low emission zones that can restrict the use of older vehicles in certain urban areas.
London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is the largest but doesn’t impose a ban, instead charging drivers of non-compliant vehicles to enter on a daily basis.
Scotland’s four-city Low Emission Zone (LEZ) does however outlaw the use of some ageing motors.
First introduced in Glasgow on 1 June 2023 – and by Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh a year later – the LEZ boundary ringfences the city centres and is an outright ban on vehicles that fail to meet the minimum required emission standards – Euro 6 for diesel cars and Euro 4 for petrols – rather than a charging zone like London’s ULEZ.
The restriction will also impact diesel-powered Euro VI HGVs and buses.
Instead of being able to pay a non-compliance charge, the LEZ will see owners of ineligible motors issued with a Penalty Charge Notice.
The initial penalty charge for all non-compliant vehicles is set at £60, reduced by 50 per cent if it is paid within a fortnight.
However, a surcharge will be incurrent for any subsequent breach of the same LEZ within a 90 day window. This will see the penalty amount doubled. The maximum daily penalty charge for car and van drivers is capped at £480, though for buses and HGVs it is £960.
After 90 days of last breaching the rules, the surcharge rate will be reset.
Oxford also has a unique Zero Emission Zone, which charges drivers of all cars – irrelevant of age and fuel type – to use eight of it’s central streets. Only EVs escape the daily charge.
