To drive in Caen, the inhabitants of La Manche will have to make new arrangements

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It's a change seemingly innocuous which questions those who go to Caen (Calvados): do they still have the right to drive there since the 1^is January 2025?

Each year, a significant proportion of inhabitants of Cotentin (Manche) goes there in fact: students and parents, patients and sick people, families and workers, visitors and tourists… Cotentin and the Caen plain remain two territories, from one end of national road 13 to the other , closely related to the former Lower Normandy Region.

However, since the 1^is January 2025, Caen la mer joined the list of dozens of areas where circulation East restricted in France, and where it is now a question of Crit'air sticker,prohibitions and of exemptions. Explanations.

ZFE et ZFE-m

Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse and even Rouen: in France, under certain conditions, the circulation of oldest and polluting vehicles is restricted in eleven urban areas in low emissions zones (ZFE). A provision included in the Climate and Resilience law promulgated on August 22, 2022 and whose overall objectives are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

The low-emission mobility zone (ZFE-m), which concerns our neighbor Calvados, is an extension. It now involves around thirty additional towns with more than 150,000 inhabitants, including Caen la mer, an urban community of 48 municipalities with more than 274,000 inhabitants. Among the latter, 34,000 students and a good number of Manchois.

Which Crit’air?

To know under what conditions it is now possible to travel in the territory of Caen la mer, you must first know the “Crit'air” classification of your vehicle, whether it is a two-wheelerof a carof a bus or a heavyweight for those who don't already know it.

Seven scenarios, in the form of different stickers, exist: electric vehicle, Crit'air 1 to 5 and “unclassified”. In 2023, cars with the Crit'Air 5 sticker were no longer welcome in metropolises regularly exceeding air quality limit values.

The process of obtaining of this sticker, or its simulationcan be done in a few minutes thanks to its registration certificate on the dedicated government site: certificate-air.gouv.fr. For a little more than three euros for a vehicle registered in France, the sticker will be sent by post.

Thus, for example, the owner of a Peugeot 207 running on diesel whose first registration dates back to 2008 will be allocated a Crit'air 3 sticker. This sticker must be affixed to the windshield of your vehicle to travel in the territory of Caen la mer, even without stopping.

“Unclassified” prohibited

“As required by law,” explains Caen la mer, “the ZFE must cover at least 50% of the population of our urban area, or a little more than 100,000 inhabitants. In this zone, the circulation of 'unclassified' vehicles (prior to 1997) will be prohibited: this is a minimum perimeter (ZFE-m).

The territory is among the so-called territories of vigilance where air quality thresholds are respected. Also, it is proposed to set up an ZFE-m and limit access to the defined perimeter to 'unclassified' vehicles. The studies which were carried out, in partnership with Atmo Normandie and Cerema, notably made it possible to identify 2,000 unclassified vehicles in the region. »

2,000 vehicles affected

This perimeter, which concerns the interior of the ring road, in reality brings together all the municipalities of Caen la mer since it concerns all the municipalities that can be crossed by these 'unclassified' vehicles.

A “small wheeler” exemption can be obtained for private vehicles older than 1997 which drive less than 6,000 km per year.

THE “mobility inclusion” vehicleswhich allow people with disabilities to park, are not concerned, any more than collection vehicles or vehicles of historical interest.

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