A positive step against air pollution.
Cars and motorbikes running on petrol or diesel will be banned from driving in Amsterdam from 2030.
According to The Guardian, the city’s council plans to phase in the change as part of a drive to clean up air pollution, which the authorities blame for shortening the life expectancy of Amsterdam residents by a year.
Also, from 2020 onward, diesel cars that are 15 years or older will be banned from going within the A10 ring road around the Dutch capital, due to high levels of pollution.
“Pollution often is a silent killer and is one of the greatest health hazards in Amsterdam,” said the councillor responsible for the city’s traffic, Sharon Dijksma, announcing the municipality’s decision.
As well as this decision, public buses and coaches that emit exhaust fumes will no longer enter the city centre from 2022.
Amsterdam is already a city dominated largely by cyclists, with 58% of people over 12 years of age cycling in the city daily. Despite these stats, air pollution in the Netherlands’ biggest cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, are as bad as many other European cities and regularly breach pollution rules.
Ireland has a similar plan to the one that we’ve seen in Amsterdam, one that proposes that no non-zero emission vehicles should be sold in Ireland after 2030.
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