14 Dutch Cities Have Introduced Zero Emission Zones, Canada Reviews

The Netherlands is already strongly associated with a culture of cycling, but that’s about to become even more ingrained thanks to a brand new policy on congestion. 

As of January 1, 14 Dutch cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague have implemented brand-new zero-emissions zones with hopes of drastically reducing CO2 emissions. Four more Netherlands cities will implement the zones by the end of the year.

The zones don’t prohibit all vehicles entering the area – instead, they ban polluting vans and trucks moving freight commercial deliveries from being allowed in, which have been on the increase since the growth of e-commerce. 

So, how do the zones work? Well, cameras at the perimeter of each zone will record the license plate of entering vehicles, according to Zag Daily, and these will be checked against a central database. Fines will then be issued automatically to offending vehicles. 

‘Since the 1970s, cities across the country have implemented an effective ‘carrot and stick’ approach of providing attractive alternatives to driving (such as dense, high-quality cycling and public transport networks) while making it unattractive through traffic calming, circulation, and restriction,’ said Dutch Cycling Embassy International Relations Manager Chris Bruntlett. 

These zones are now part of the ‘stick’ approach to tackling freight vehicles, and the next five years will act as a transition period with hopes of phasing out all but zero-emission vehicles by 2030. 

Freight still needs to move in and out of these zones, obvs, so the role of cargo bikes is set to become more important – there’s already around 9,500 in use in the Netherlands, but the global market is set to boom to a whopping €2.4 million by 2031. 

Interesting, eh? We’ll have to wait and see if other countries implement similar approaches. 

Did you see that these are officially Europe’s most congested cities?

Plus: This is the best European city break for 2025, according to . 

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