Toulouse drivers must display pollution stickers
Crit'Air vignettes to become mandatory in all vehicles as the 'Pink City' adopts anti-pollution scheme
Toulouse will on Monday become the sixth city in France to impose the Crit'Air sticker system to control traffic levels during periods of high pollution.
The Occitanie capital joins Paris, Lille, Strasbourg, Lyon and Grenoble in adopting the colour-coded system, which will allow the city to bar heavily polluting vehicles from entering an area inside the périphérique based on the sticker on their windscreen.
All road vehicles, including cars, heavy goods vehicles, buses, coaches and motorcycles must, from Monday, display a sticker, including all foreign vehicles, La Depeche reports.
Subscriber Extra: Crit'Air FAQs
There are six categories, from zero for pollution-free electric vehicles, up to category 4 and 5 for heavy polluting ones, registered before 2001 and 1997. The higher the number on a vehicle's Crit'Air sticker, the more likely it is to be barred from entering the city during pollution spikes.
Motorists whose vehicles do not have a sticker could face an on-the-spot fine of €68, but authorities have said there will be an unspecified period of grace to allow those who have not yet ordered theirs to do so.
Stickers, which cost €4.18, must be ordered online at the official www.certificat-air.gouv.fr website. They can take up to 30 days to arrive.
The website has French, English, German, Spanish and Italian language sections.
The stickers are the city's latest attempt to cut air pollution levels. Last week, the prefecture imposed temporary speed restrictions on key routes in the Haute-Garonne during a pollution spike caused by calm, cold weather.
It has said that it will continue to impose speed restrictions as necessary.
The department has issued 11 air pollution alerts since the start of 2016, while the EU has repeatedly criticised France for ignoring air pollution thresholds.
