Lifted low-emission zones

23 of the 58 low-emission zones recorded by the German Environment Agency have now been lifted. A zone is lifted when the clean-air plan is updated and the authority finds that the limits will be met reliably without traffic restrictions; the road traffic authority then removes the signs. The biggest wave came in 2023 and 2024 in Baden-Württemberg, where the regional councils of Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Tübingen and Freiburg abolished almost every zone, including Karlsruhe, Heidelberg and Pfinztal on 1 March 2023, Heilbronn, Herrenberg and Leonberg on 1 January 2024, and Ulm, Tübingen and Reutlingen on 4 June 2024. Freiburg followed with its plan update of 22 April 2025. Outside Baden-Württemberg, Hanover, Neu-Ulm, Erfurt and Mainz were added, Mainz most recently on 1 October 2025. For some cities the plan and the Agency give different dates: Hanover’s plan says 1 January 2024, the Agency 22 February 2024; in Erfurt the higher administrative court quashed the order on 21 April 2021, implemented at the end of 2021, while the Agency lists 1 May 2021. We show the Agency’s date and note the discrepancy.