Low-emission zone: No-brainer or non-starter?

The environmental zone, for some a no-brainer, for others a non-starter. But to me, it is synonymous with the City Council and the parties that serve on it. After all, everyone who serves on the council has the goal of making the city better for its residents that future generations may enjoy for years to come, in good health. Sounds a bit like the environmental zone, right? And just as there are (local) parties that look alike, so too, under the rubric of "environmental zone," there are different flavors that seek to achieve the same goal. For example, Volt, D66 and Groenlinks are all known as progressive parties, but differ in our thinking. Here I draw a comparison with the environmental zone, zero-emission zone and car-free downtown. While all three work to improve air quality and keep cars out, they differ substantially in implementation. For example, an environmental zone bars diesel cars and the zero-emission zone bars all emission-emitting cars in a given area. A car-free downtown, on the other hand, covers all vehicles, including electric or (in the future?) hydrogen-powered vehicles. 

Likewise for the environmental zone, compromises have to be made, just as it is for the parties in the Maastricht council. Better air quality for all its inhabitants, no party will oppose that. But what is involved? And what compromises do you have to make - and more importantly, will you still achieve your goal? As mentioned, the zero-emissions zone repels all vehicles that have emissions. But yes, the neighbor's Tesla is just allowed in. And does this really benefit equality within society? 

The Council group and its support, me included, are now busy weighing arguments, and will soon come up with a proposal for the future. Because although for me it is a nice synonym for the City Council and its parties, it remains a hot topic for many. So too for us. You probably already know that we are in favor of a car-free downtown. But, as you would expect from us, we also like to look at other cities within the Netherlands and Europe to see if there are best practices that we can adopt and, as always, we want to strike a pragmatic tone, not a populist one.

The Singing Pötsvrouwe sang the well-known Mestreech song, Mestreech is not wide, but Mestreech is long. Mestreech is the city of the Companions of the Zaank. Nothing is too lest and nothing is too sworn. Singing is not for me - but I am hopeful that for the Maastricht people nothing is too difficult and nothing is too heavy.