This Monday, the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (Fedea) submitted to the Ministry of Transport a proposal to establish access freight to urban centers in order to reduce congestion and pollution to which large cities are exposed. The think tank regrets that this possibility is not included in the Sustainable Mobility Bill that the Executive has sent again to the Cortes after having declined as a result of the dissolution of parliament due to the calling of the July 2023 elections. .
Under the umbrella of the third issue of its ‘Food for think’ series dedicated to transport policies and infrastructure, the foundation defends the principle of “pay per use and the polluter pays” in order to internalize externalities to bring private costs closer together. to the social ones. This line frames the idea of designing a congestion charge in large cities, already present in other European cities such as London, Milan, Stockholm or Copenhagen. “In these cases, the revenue is enormous, but you are financing yourself by correcting the problem of sustaining so much traffic when there is no capacity for it,” explained one of the authors of the report, Ginés de Rus.
The text of the bill orchestrated by the portfolio headed by Minister Óscar Puente opens the door for municipalities that wish to “introduce a fee for the circulation of vehicles that exceed the limits or maximum categories of free circulation On stipulated in “low emission zones.” Therefore, this measure will depend on what each municipality has established regarding circulation through its low-emission zones. But Fedea “misses” the possibility of establishing these access weights that, from their perspective, would help address the congestion that cities like Madrid suffer at specific times.
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