ZFE Rouen: Which cars are prohibited and where?

While the pedagogical period runs until February 2023, the ZFE Rouen excludes Crit’Air 4 and 5 polluting vehicles from March 2023, but with exemptions.

It was ahead of its time regarding mobility solutions, bike-sharing, TEOR high-level service buses, or the metro. Rouen aims to increasingly promote soft mobility, public transportation, and shared mobility, and thus reduces reliance on cars. Most importantly, it wants to exclude its most polluting vehicles from its streets. The Rouen Normandy metropolitan area is therefore among the first in France.

Which cars cannot operate in the ZFE Rouen?

The ZFE Rouen came into effect on July 1, 2020, for trucks, then on September 1, 2022, for passenger cars. The Metropolitan authority prohibits cars and trucks meeting Crit’Air categories 4 and 5, as well as unclassified ones. Therefore, all diesel cars registered before 2006 or gasoline cars before 1997 — and not October 1997 as the site indicates; the national decree takes precedence — are not allowed to circulate within the zone.

Added to these are utility vehicles, those registered before October 1997 in gasoline or before 2006 in diesel, as well as trucks registered before October 2009 in diesel and October 2001 in gasoline. Overall, this measure would exclude 22,000 cars, representing 8% of the vehicle fleet.

The Rouen ZFE applies an exception for motorcycles, scooters, other three-wheeled vehicles, and thermal quadricycles. These Crit’Air vehicles, unclassified, 4 and 5, registered before July 2004, will only be banned on September 1, 2023.

What exemptions are there in the ZFE Rouen?

As in Strasbourg or Toulouse, Rouen and the communes within the ZFE-m are required to establish national exemptions for certain vehicle categories. These include:

• Mobility inclusion card CMI-s or European for persons with disabilities
• Vehicles of public interest
• Hybrid cars with more than 50 km of range

In addition to these national exemptions, the Rouen ZFE introduces local measures. They are detailed in its decree, but we summarize them below:

• Classic vehicles
• Public transportation
• Camper vans
• Tanker trucks, sweepers/cleaners
• Priority interest vehicles
• Exceptional transport, logs
• Plug-in hybrid cars with over 50 km of electric range

Temporary exemptions for certain vehicles are also implemented in the Rouen ZFE until June 30, 2024, for:

• Refrigerated vehicles, tankers, machinery transporters, breakdown services, dump trucks
• Vehicles of public utility associations, moving companies, cultural event vehicles, filming
• Transporting live animals, hazardous materials, street vendors, market gardeners, and short-circuit food suppliers
• New vehicle owners with long delivery times (until August 31, 2023)

To facilitate entry into the ZFE via public transportation or other mobility options, 11 park-and-ride facilities are available near the border. Different transport options, such as the metro or TEOR, also allow easy and quick access within the perimeter.

What is the area covered by the Rouen Metropolis? What are the risks?

Based on the Paris ZFE model, the Low Emission Mobility Zone of Rouen concerns the city itself as well as its suburbs. The metropolis has determined that all surrounding municipalities of Rouen are included in the perimeter, except Mont-Saint-Aignan and Canteleu, as well as other more distant towns like Le-Grand-Quevilly. Here is the list of 14 municipalities within the system:

• Rouen;
• Sotteville-lès-Rouen;
• Le-Petit-Quevilly;
• Le-Grand-Quevilly;
• Flaubert;
• Déville-lès-Rouen;
• Notre-Dame-de-Bondeville;
• Bois-Guillaume;
• Bihorel;
• Darnétal;
• Saint-Léger-du-Bourg-Denis;
• Bonsecours;
• Le-Mesnil-Esnard;
• Amfreville-la-Mi-Voie.

However, Rouen excludes some access routes to the park-and-ride facilities:

• Notre-Dame-de-Bondeville: RD 927 – Dieppe Road coming from Le Houlme, Gustave Flaubert and Sergent Boutard streets;
• Le Mesnil-Esnard: RD 6014 – Paris Road between Franqueville-Saint-Pierre and the Haut Hubert park-and-ride;
• Bois-Guillaume: RD 928/Neufchâtel Road between Isneauville and the Rouges Terres park-and-ride.

All ZFE-m areas are subject to the same rules across France. Circulating and parking in the zone with a Crit’Air vignette that is forbidden or missing can lead to a fine of €68 (class 3). However, there is a pedagogical period until March 1, 2023, with reminders of the rules.

ZFE Rouen 2025, which vehicles will be banned?

Rouen and its metropolitan area are doing everything to improve air quality as quickly as possible. This is the only way to obtain a derogation for the crucial date of January 1, 2025. By then, the ZFE Rouen is expected to prohibit vehicles with Crit’Air 3 stickers. This mainly concerns cars gasoline before 2006, diesel before 2011, or two- and three-wheelers and quadricycles registered before 2007. The final decision will be announced at the latest by June 30, 2024, the deadline for achieving a nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution level below 10 µg/m3.

The ZFE-m Rouen schedule

Also read: ZFE Lyon: which cars are banned in the metropolitan area?