In Munich, there will probably be no driving ban for Euro 5 diesel in October. Air pollution from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fell significantly in the first half of 2023. The city’s current measured values show that the EU limit of 40 micrograms of NO2 per cubic meter of air is exceeded by only two digits on average. These are Landshuter Allee with a current average value of 44 micrograms and Tegernseer Landstraße with a value of 42. The remaining stations are below the limit.
“This is really good news for Munich,” said Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) on Wednesday. “So my forecast has come true: the measures are having an effect and the limit values can be largely met.” The people of Munich who live on busy streets could breathe a sigh of relief.
Since February 1st of this year, a driving ban for all diesel vehicles in emission class Euro 4/IV has been in force in the low-emission zone, which has been extended to include the central ring road. However, the city council had decided on numerous exceptions, for example for residents or delivery traffic. The second stage should then come into force from October if the NO2 values do not improve significantly. Then diesel with Euro 5/V would also have been affected, and from April 1, 2024 onwards, the general exceptions would no longer apply.
The driving ban is the result of a comparison that the city had made with the German Environmental Aid and the German Traffic Club. They had sued for compliance with the limit values, initially against the Free State. But the state government handed over responsibility for air pollution control to the municipalities in 2021.
But a further tightening of the driving ban is now off the table. “I’m assuming that the Munich city council will also decide accordingly at the end of July,” said Reiter. Whether the restrictions for diesel 4 vehicles will remain can only be decided once the annual average for 2023 has been determined. This is expected to be the case in the first quarter of 2024. “It’s important to me to always keep an eye on the proportionality of the measures, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said the mayor.
That’s how the Munich SPD city council faction sees it. “More modern vehicles are usually registered in Munich than the national average,” says SPD traffic expert Nikolaus Gradl. “Therefore, the forecasts of the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection were wrong. We welcome the fact that the second stage of the driving bans can now be suspended. Air pollution control is important to us, but it must also be proportionate.”
The Greens also consider driving bans to be “not proportionate”
The Greens are also in favor of abandoning the tightened driving ban. “Munich’s air is cleaner than it has been for many years. This has a positive impact on the health of tens of thousands of people who live along the particularly heavily polluted streets,” says Green Mayor Katrin Habenschaden, who negotiated the settlement with the plaintiffs at the time. “In 2024, Munich will comply with the limit values for air quality for the first time and thus end a breach of the law by the Bavarian state government against the citizens that has been going on for years.” Habenschaden also thinks: “A tightening of the driving bans in the fall would therefore not be proportionate.”
The parliamentary group of the CSU and Free Voters had rejected the driving ban from the start. Just last week she had applied to stop the ban. “The mayor didn’t consider the issue to be urgent,” suspects CSU faction leader Manuel Pretzl. “Apparently the pressure was now too great. For Munich’s diesel drivers, the result counts: Finally, there is planning security for the owners of Euro 5 vehicles.” According to Pretzl, this announcement by the city leaders was overdue. “The next step is to remove the entire diesel driving ban. Munich’s air quality has been improving for years. The ban is and will remain disproportionate.”
If you look at the annual mean values at the measuring points, they have actually fallen sharply. In 2019, the city and the State Office for the Environment recorded that the limit value was exceeded at a total of 15 measuring points. The two measuring points on Landshuter Allee each had a value of 63 micrograms, the one on Tegernseer Landstraße came to 55 micrograms NO2.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, the irritant gas, which is mainly emitted by diesel vehicles, can trigger respiratory diseases and damage the cardiovascular system. This is particularly the case for people with previously damaged airways.