Lyon: Is driving at 30 km/h more polluting?

In other words, it is the fluidity of traffic that will affect total emissions.

Cerema, a public institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, published a much-discussed study in 2021 on road emissions of atmospheric pollutants.

Among the lessons learned, it is noted that for a private vehicle, pollutant emissions are “minimal” up to 70 km/h. Cerema adds that “for both light vehicles and heavy goods vehicles, emissions are significant at very low speeds (up to approximately 30 km/h), which means that road traffic congestion is very detrimental to air quality.”