Toll motorways and now... paying to enter cities?

A few months ago we were delighted because several motorways had stopped being toll roads in our country. This meant considerable savings for users of these roads and a step forward in democratising their use. But shortly afterwards we received another piece of news that overshadowed this progress. Motorways were going to become toll roads, with a type of tax whose implementation we still don’t know.

This step is covered by the draft of the new Sustainable Mobility Law. This law includes this proposal, but it is not the only one that is going to stir up discontent among vehicle users in our country. In addition to tolls on motorways and other high-occupancy roads, a system is being prepared to charge for driving in Low Emission Zones.

A controversial measure

This measure will mean that users who wish to enter these restricted traffic zones, especially in city centres, will have to pay a fee to do so. How, where and, above all, how much, is still to be determined. A controversial measure which, although it may seem like a scheme to squeeze money out of drivers in our country, has already been applied in European cities for some time.

One of the best-known examples is London, which applies this measure to vehicles travelling through the city centre. The draft has been approved by the Council of Ministers today, Tuesday 2 March. The intention of the government led by Pedro Sánchez is for it to come into force in 2023, although it still has a long way to go.

The measure is being adopted by several European governments to prevent the most polluting cars from circulating through the city centres of major cities. This would be a second phase once access has been restricted for those most polluting vehicles. The next steps are to carry out the various studies needed to make these plans a reality, so we assume the timeframe for implementing the plan will be somewhat longer.