From 1 January 2020, vehicles without a DGT environmental label cannot drive from Monday to Friday, 7am to 8pm, in the low-emission zone of Barcelona’s Rondes. Rules, deadlines and exceptions.
The Rondes de Barcelona low-emission zone (ZBE) comes into operation on a permanent basis on 1 January 2020. It covers more than 95 square kilometres and extends to Barcelona and four other municipalities. Barcelona’s ordinance was approved definitively by the Municipal Council on 20 December 2019, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) manages the register and the permits.
Which vehicles cannot drive
From 1 January, Monday to Friday and from 7am to 8pm, vehicles without a DGT environmental label cannot drive in the zone. Only those with a 0, ECO, C or B label may enter. In practice, petrol cars registered before January 2000, diesel cars before January 2006, vans before October 1994 and motorcycles and mopeds before 2003 are left out. The AMB estimates that about 50,000 vehicles will stop entering each working day. The penalty is for driving in the zone during those hours, not for owning the vehicle: outside those hours and at weekends it can be driven.
The zone includes Barcelona, except the Zona Franca industrial estate, Vallvidrera, Tibidabo and Les Planes, as well as Sant Adrià de Besòs, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and parts of Esplugues de Llobregat and Cornellà de Llobregat. The Rondes themselves remain open to all vehicles.
Warnings, fines and moratoriums
The city council has planned an adaptation period: from 1 January to 31 March only warnings will be sent to drivers who reoffend. Fines start on 1 April 2020, at €100 for minor infringements, €200 for serious ones and €500 for very serious ones. Repeat offenders pay 30% more, and a vehicle that is still in the zone 90 minutes later can receive a second penalty. Control is by cameras that read number plates and compare them with the DGT label and the register of permits, and the Guardia Urbana will carry out spot checks.
Vans, lorries, buses and coaches without a label have a one-year moratorium: the restriction will reach them on 1 January 2021. There is also a one-year moratorium, for 2020, for people on low incomes who need the vehicle to work.
Vehicles may drive with a free permit, after registering in the ZBE register, if they belong to people with reduced mobility, to people with regular medical treatment or conditions that stop them using public transport, to emergency and essential services (medical, funeral, fire, police, civil protection) and to singular activities, such as mobile television units or concrete mixers. Vehicles registered abroad need their own permit. Other vehicles without a label can request up to 10 days of access a year, at €2 a day, with discounts for low incomes.
What to review
The first thing is to find out whether the vehicle has a label: the DGT assigns it according to the registration date and fuel, and it can be checked with the number plate on the metropolitan ZBE website (zbe.barcelona). The label costs €5 at the post office and carrying it is recommended but not compulsory. Anyone with a car, motorcycle or van without a label can consider whether it makes sense to replace it, register if they meet an exception, or plan their journeys around the 10 days a year. Companies with fleets without labels have until 31 December 2020 to adapt their vans, lorries and buses.
The ZBE comes with a timetable of three dates worth remembering: 1 January 2020, 1 April 2020 and 1 January 2021.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
