Hamburg reins in diesel cars
BAN: A TOTAL OF 2.2KM OF ROAD BECOMES RESTRICTED
Greenpeace says this is not enough but that it can be the signal for overdue change in policy.
Hamburg yesterday became the first German city to impose a partial ban on diesel vehicles as part of the country’s much-debated move to improve air quality.
The port city blocked older diesel cars and trucks from using a 600-metre stretch of Max Brauer Allee and 1.6km of Stresemannstrasse in the Altona-Nord district. Signs marking the restrictions and diversions have been put in place over recent weeks.
All diesel vehicles that do not meet the Euro-6 emissions standards are affected by the ban. Less than a third of the diesel vehicles registered in the city at the beginning of the year meet the standard, the Federal Motor Transport Authority said.
There are exceptions: in one of the streets affected emergency vehicles, residents and visitors, bin lorries, delivery vans and taxis may use the road.
The limited nature of the ban has drawn criticism from environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which say it is merely window-dressing.
Greenpeace activists yesterday used power hoses to spray “clean graffiti” into the grime-encrusted pavements along one of the diesel-ban streets: “Clean air for all!”
Greenpeace spokesperson Niklas Schinerl said: “Hamburg’s decision not to allow dirty diesel everywhere can be the signal for the long-overdue change in transport policy such as modern cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam implemented long ago.”
Schinerl demanded more from Hamburg “so the air becomes better not just along a few hundred metres but over the whole city”.
Pressure has been building on major German cities to improve air quality and diesel vehicles have been a key target due to their nitrogen oxide emissions. The reputation of diesel cars took a further hit in 2015 when car giant Volkswagen admitted it had installed software in its diesel vehicles that cheated emissions tests.
Earlier this month, the European Commission referred Germany and five other European Union (EU) countries to the European Court of Justice for failing to tackle air pollution in their cities.
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that 90 German cities breached EU levels for air quality in 2016 and 66 cities did in 2017.