the government authorizes Marseille, Strasbourg and Rouen to allow Crit’Air 3 vehicles to circulate

The metropolises of Marseille, Strasbourg and Rouen, where air quality has improved, will be able to choose to allow diesel vehicles and cars over 14 years old and gasoline vehicles over 19 years old to circulate (Crit’Air sticker 3 ), announced Tuesday March 19 the Ministry of Ecological Transition. As part of the extension of low-emission zones (ZFE), these three metropolises were to prohibit their circulation from January 1, 2025.

The objective was to limit road transport pollution, the leading cause of nitrogen oxide emissions in France (44%), and which generates around 40,000 premature deaths per year, according to Public Health France (SPF). But Marseille, Strasbourg and Rouen fell below the regulatory air quality thresholds in 2023. This allows them, if they wish, to avoid this extension measure which would have affected a large number of motorists (21% of cars on the road in 2023).

Prohibition obligation maintained in Paris and Lyon

The metropolis of Aix-Marseille-Provence had already announced at the beginning of February that the extension of the ZFE was postponed sine die. The metropolis of Rouen confirmed on Tuesday that it would not implement the ban on Crit’Air 3 vehicles, welcoming its “efforts” which made it possible to improve air quality to fall below regulatory thresholds.

On the other hand, the strict ban on Crit’Air 3 vehicles is for the moment well maintained for January 1, 2025 in the metropolis of Strasbourg, which already practices a ban “pedagogic”that is to say without sanction, since January 1, 2024. Only the ZFEs of Paris and Lyon are still required to limit the circulation of Crit’Air 3 vehicles from the start of next year.