• New plan will extend non-local traffic limits to additional downtown areas •
An initiative by Madrid activist mayor Manuela Carmena’s Ahora Madrid coalition to ban highly contaminating diesel vehicles from the city centre by 2020 may meet with less resistance than anticipated, after receiving tentative support from other parties, including the Socialists (PSOE), centre-right Ciudadanos and conservative Partido Popular (PP).
The proposed ban on diesel-powered vehicles joins recently approved stringent anti-pollution regulations set to take effect Feb. 1st that will see all traffic in Madrid’s city centre halted on days when contamination levels surpass EU-mandated levels. The city’s new Air Quality plan would also extend current locals-only restrictions on traffic in certain neighborhoods to include others in and around the Madrid city centre.
Road users will instead be encouraged to use petrol or electric vehicles. Although both petrol and diesel engines convert chemical energy into mechanical power by burning fuel, they do so in different ways. Whereas diesel engines typically use less fuel and produce less carbon dioxide than a petrol engine with the same power output, diesel engines can still produce higher levels of particulates or microscopic amounts of soot leftover from the combustion process.
If you would like to learn more about diesel, including how to identify whether a particular type of diesel fuel is flammable or combustible, you can visit the Storemasta website for a wide variety of useful resources. Essentially, determining this difference can play a role in how these types of fuel are handled.
Read the Full Story at El País in Spanish and in English …
