Cities call for improved regulation of foreign drivers in UVARs

In a letter to members of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism committee, POLIS, Eurocities and 20 elected officials from cities around Europe have called for MEPs to enable the improved regulation of foreign drivers who use UVARs.

Creating cleaner and more inclusive urban mobility is perhaps the biggest challenge facing our cities today, and many have set ambitious targets. However, big ambitions must be met with bold action to confront car-centric transport systems in order to put people and places first, whilst achieving decarbonisation and decongestion objectives.

UVARs (Urban Vehicle Access Regulations) are instrumental to achieving this. Through spatial interventions such as Low Emissions Zones (LEZs), congestion charges, Limited Traffic Zones (LTZs) and superblocks, cities can use UVARs to create greener, safer and more inclusive streets. Cities across Europe are increasingly looking to UVARs as part of urban management strategies to reallocate space and prioritise active travel and public transport, whilst minimising access to polluting vehicles.

From Rome’s LTZ, to Brussels’ Good Move Regional Mobility Plan, Leuven’s Circulatieplan and Paris’ zone à faibles émissions mobilité, cities are radically transforming themselves into cleaner more liveable, more accessible places. Meanwhile, smaller cities are also using UVARs successfully, e.g. the superblock development in Vitoria Gasteiz and Helmond’s Brainport Smart District where locally-led reallocation of space to prioritise active travel and public transport is changing mobility from the bottom up.

However, the cross-border enforcement of UVARs (checking if a foreign vehicle complies with a given UVAR and issuing warnings/fines to non-compliant foreign vehicles) is a major challenge for many cities. In their current form, municipal enforcement procedures are not equipped to achieve this, with widespread fine avoidance for traffic violations.

In Amsterdam alone, 35% of the trucks entering the city carry a foreign license plate for which their vehicle ownership cannot be verified. The repercussions of a city's inability to regulate foreign vehicles is evident in Milan, where despite a comprehensive limited traffic zone and congestion charge scheme, in 2020, 75% of foreign drivers did not pay their traffic fines which amounted to €6 million loss for the city (according to the local press). This is creating disparities in the treatment of local and foreign drivers, while undermining cities’ progressive efforts to cut transport related emissions.

“European citizens expect a fair application of rules that affect personal travel behaviour. European companies expect a level playing field with regards to compliance to environmental regulations. This is at stake in the revision of the cross-border enforcement directive: cities want access to vehicle ownership data of those that break the rules of Urban Vehicle Access Regulations in order to have a more fair system, where local and non-resident drivers are treated equally,” says Ivo Cre, Coordinator of POLIS’ Access Working Group- which regularly reviews topics related to UVARs.

The European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism committee (TRAN) are currently debating the Cross-Border Enforcement Directive, which is intended to support the enforcement of traffic rules, including the fining of foreign drivers who breach local traffic rules. This is a topic which has long been on their radar, with a 2017 report recommending methods of enforcement regarding foreign vehicles, such as the establishment of national bilateral agreements. The testing and demonstration of solutions in the Barcelona Region’s LEZ – a region with a substantial number of non-resident visitors - has revealed the potential success of such harmonisation.

Now, as the letter asserts, more rigorous European legislation is critical for effective action, and while recent policy initiatives have begun to provide this, there is still room for much progress. Signatories to the letter which include cities from all corners of Europe - urge MEPs to include urban vehicle access regulations in the scope of the Cross-Border Enforcement Directive, currently being discussed by the TRAN Committee. If amended as the signatories wish, the directive will allow Member States and their cities to collect technical vehicle information from vehicles entering a UVAR, as it would provide a legal basis to process these in full compliance with the relevant data protection rules.

Original article published on POLIS on 13 November 2023.