Amsterdam: high price for diesel and gasoline ban in 2030

From all over 2030, no petrol or diesel can be used in all of Amsterdam. Amsterdam must become traffic-free in phases. In several respects, it leads to an invoice that is paid dearly.

Next year a start will be made with the implementation of the plans. Now only older mopeds, vans, trucks and taxis are not allowed in the city. From 2020 (effective date as yet unknown) every passenger diesel car that is older than fifteen years is also excluded from the environmental zone to be set. From 2022 onwards, the closing and closing of the emitting coaches and public transport buses in the city center, with the exception of the area around Central Station. From 2025 onwards, all lorries and vans, taxis and buses within the ring A10 must be emission free. Mopeds and light mopeds that emit exhaust gasses are even nowhere more welcome in the city.

Replacing 300.000 vehicles, a very expensive affair

These are measures that anticipate the plans to release all of Amsterdam, including the industrial areas, in terms of traffic emissions in 2030. It means that a great transformation from fossil to electrical must be initiated, which cannot be paid for by ordinary citizens. The capital is going to lend a hand, but replacing 300.000 vehicles (in Amsterdam!) Requires a lot of money: billions. Add to this all the expensive changes that have to be made to the infrastructure and you will understand that the municipality of Amsterdam can never afford this alone. Let alone someone with an average income can adjust the difference between subsidy and purchase price.

The Dutchman pays

So the bill is presented to all Dutch people, who are going to contribute tax-wise to the goal of making the air cleaner and extending the average Amsterdammer by three months. That is never measurable, impossible. It depends on a lifestyle, on the places that the Amsterdammer visits, on the emissions to which the Amsterdammer is exposed elsewhere, simply reasoned.

Schiphol .... is not Amsterdam

The capital is plagued by plans to expand the number of flight movements (Schiphol, Lelystad, but of course that is not Amsterdam, no matter how close these stopping places for flying tourists and businessmen are to the Dutch capital). Sometimes a cruise ship moors, the Amsterdam port company keeps on turning, and Corus IJmuiden is just around the corner. You don't hear about that in De Baarsjes, the Rivierenbuurt or within the Grachtengordel.

Emissions are moving, concentration outside Amsterdam is becoming higher

Soon, if the plans go ahead, no one with a vehicle that runs on fossil fuel can enter the city anymore. But apart from the fact that not everyone is able to buy an electric car within eleven years, there is something else. The needy clean air never pays attention to the (enormous financial) clearing that threatens the business community and industry in Amsterdam, and that a considerable part of the air pollution comes from outside Amsterdam. And just as doubtful: the concentration of less clean air moves when the non-Amsterdammers have to drive around the capital with an arc. Elsewhere, the density of vehicles running on fossil fuels is increasing, and so the concentration of emissions is also multiplied.

Partial objectives

Sharon Dijksma probably knows that too, is making a high effort and ultimately wants to achieve a few sub-targets on emissions in the metropolitan Green Left period. And make a contribution: all fine, any improvement in the living environment is welcome. However, it must all be achievable. These are smart traffic solutions and car-free areas. A complete transition to electric however not. Not in terms of production, not financially. And when the subsidy flow for an EV in Amsterdam now starts, every Dutch taxpayer pays that. He also sees how the effects of this plan are going up in smoke anyway because the polluting economic activity is being increased in another area - in the shadow of the capital. And how emissions move and concentrate elsewhere. So you hear nobody about it, certainly not the obsessive and prominent environmental advocates. They only use selective principles and are completely silent about egocentrism, while they themselves want to realize their ideals at the expense of a lot of money.

Lower House whistle Amsterdam already back

The writing of Dijksma in the Clean Air Action Plan is in line with the Coalition Agreement, which expresses the intention not to allow new cars on fossil fuel from 2030. Nevertheless, a reservation is mentioned for the Amsterdam plans. For example, it is not yet possible to maintain in certain (and intended) emission-free areas. There are no rules to block fossil traffic. And the question is whether the current coalition in Amsterdam will be there in three years. The House of Representatives (both right and left) immediately called Amsterdam back. For example, Remco Dijkstra - Member of Parliament for the VVD - stated that this plan is at odds with the simplification of the environmental zone rules. In addition, the fleet is not at all ready to handle this huge transition to EV.

Financial deflation paid by ... correct

Nevertheless, the announced measures have a risky downside. There is a danger that the business community will not await developments. And that various entrepreneurs choose to settle in the near or further surroundings of Amsterdam. That saves the city a lot of income anyway. money that is partly needed to realize the subsidy plans, but that will have to come from the national treasury anyway. Money, which is also co-paid by the individual motorist, the most easily taxable object in the Netherlands. Without actually achieving the environmental benefit.