New limits to squeeze out old gas guzzlers are about to be introduced in Lisbon.
Right now, the capital has two bans in place. Round the Baixa Pombalina, Avenida de Liberdade and Cais de Sodré triangle no cars or vans pre-1992 are allowed.
The council’s plan is to up this limit to include all cars pre-1996.
In the wider Alcântara-Avenida de Forças Armadas-Avenida EUA section of town, restrictions in place already involve all vehicles pre-1996. The new plan is for this limit to ‘tighten’ to include all vehicles pre-2000.
It’s a move that will effectively clear the capital of as many as 100,000 cars per day, claim news sources.
Enforcing it will be the same automatic system rigged up on traffic lights that reads driver’s registration plates.
Fines of €24 per infraction will be sent to driver’s homes – with taxis, public transport systems, residents and collectors’ cars being exempt.
The move is designed to help the environment, but Portugal’s automobile club has been quick to condemn it, saying it is “absolutely stupid”, and shows that the council has no idea of the true situation for the nation’s drivers.
“Lisbon council will have great difficulties advancing with this”, ACP president Carlos Barbosa told Lusa news agency, stressing that the crisis has meant that Portuguese drivers hold on to their cars far longer these days “as they simply cannot afford to replace them”.
There are also a lot of cars that are old, but in good condition, he added.
If approved, the new vehicle age limits should come into effect from November 3.
