Dirty car ban extended in Geneva

Geneva authorities have extended to Monday a ban on dirty vehicles because of a smog alert, under a pioneering new scheme of coloured car stickers.

This is the first time the city has put into practice the new rules, under which only less-polluting vehicles can enter the city centre from 6am-10pm during a smog alert. The scheme provides for fines of CHF500 ($514) for offenders, but no fines are being imposed at present in this introductory phase.

Any vehicle planning to drive through Geneva city centre must display a sticker that indicates its environmental performance – in other words, its potential to pollute. The stickers are divided into six categories, from “grey” for the least ecological models to “green” for electric vehicles and those that run on hydrogen.

The ranking scheme is known as “Stick’Air” and is similar to one used in France. Geneva is the first Swiss city to introduce it.

Motorists can buy stickers for CHF5 from service stations, the Geneva cantonal vehicle service and from other outlets.

However, many of these sales points are reported to have run out of the stickers. On Thursday, the first day of the smog alert, only 10% of vehicles checked had stickers, reports Swiss television RTS.