Madrid bans polluting cars from the city centre

Another solution to urban congestion problems is being rolled out in Madrid today: only zero emissions cars are going to be allowed to travel in the city centre, with various exceptions for lorries making deliveries.

This makes it the first major European city to adopt such a stance, although others are to follow suit. That said, it still comes twenty years after the northwestern city of Pontevedra, banned all but essential traffic in its centre almost 20 years ago.

According to New Cities, by 2019 13 cities will have some form of car ban: Oslo, Madrid, Chengdu, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Berlin, Mexico City, Bogotá, San Francisco, New York City and Paris