The ban on accessing and using roads in Madrid city centre, provided for in the First Transitory Provision of the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance of 5 October 2018, will begin on 1 January. From that day, two out of three vehicles that are owned by Madrid’s residents will be banned from entering the capital.
As a result, the European Association of Motorists (AEA) has requested that the Madrid City Council approve a moratorium of at least two years due to the magnitude of the problem that will suddenly unfold for hundreds of thousands of Madrileño’s who own vehicles without the appropriate fuel emissions rating, according to estimates, the figure could be in excess of one million citizens.
In its petition to the Mayor, AEA considers that “the true economic and social dimension of this prohibition was not foreseen at the time of drafting and approving the Mobility Ordinance and therefore the municipal regulations do not comply with the principle of proportionality to which the administrative activity restricting such rights must be linked.”
This is because the measure affects one in three Madrid residents, 1,189,607, and two in three vehicles that make up the Madrid car fleet, whose economic value is over 5.2 billion euros (based on the average value of a car over 15 years old), which would have to be assumed by owners without any compensation.
Nor was the loss of income of around 32 million for the municipal budget in the form of IVTM (car tax) taken into consideration.
AEA has therefore asked the Mayor of Madrid, Mr. Martinez Almeida, to urgently approve a moratorium, of at least two years, of the prohibition of accessing and circulating on urban public roads within the territorial area of Madrid ZBE.
