After the fall communism in Poland, Poles were not only given democracy, they were given choice. The choice of where to live, what to buy, where to work, and perhaps more importantly, what to drive.
Long gone were the days when you would only see Fiat Polskis and Trabants cruising the streets of Poland. Seemingly overnight, the once empty streets of Warsaw and other Polish cities become jam-packed full of cars, some old and some old. Well, mostly old in fact, as the majority of Poland’s cars were imported – by hook or by crook – from abroad. But it wasn’t until another milestone came around, in 2004 when Poland joined the European Union, that the floodgates really opened. With the import of used cars made really easy, and fairly affordable, there was a steady stream of second-hand motors coming in from the rest of Europe. First it was Germany, and after the Poles had bought all of the second-hand cars there, adventerous entrepreneurs started moving further west and to the south, to the extent that they started importing used cars from further afield, such as Spain, France and Italy, and even Portugal. Quite a long way to go to get a bargain motor, it has to be said. And so this lasted for a few years until official car dealers actually had to start knocking down prices, if only by a small margin. Nevertheless, data released in 2014 shows that in the 25 years since the fall of communism, the number of cars tripled in Poland. Quite a feat.
At this juncture I’m sure you would expect me to start going on about the state of Polish roads. I think we’ve been there done that. I wanted to concentrate more on the back end, as in the exhaust, and on emissions. You see, theproblem with all these used cars is quite simply the fact that they are not up to par as far the latest European emissions standards go. This goes especially for the earlier diesel cars with their seemingly toxic fumes. There’s a popular bumper sticker which says that “Diesel Musi Dymić”, meaning “Diesels gotta Smoke”, which is a particular favourite among connoisseurs of older TDI engines. But the jokes are coming to an end for diesel owners, as a new law which has been put forward by the government means older cars might not be allowed into city centres. The proposition means that cars would be classed into four ‘eco-groups’, sorted according to age and emissions, with each car gaining a coloured sticker. The move would hit owners of older diesel cars, as the proposal would ban all diesel vehicles manufactured before 1997 from entering the zones, while cars built between 1997 and 2001 would only gain access to certain areas of a given city. The scheme goes much along the lines of Germany’s current ‘Umweltzone’ environmental sticker system, which is slowly but surely weening out all the diesel belchers out of city centres.
Even though enviromentalists have been calling for such a solution for a long time now, there will of course be a social backlash. Even nowadays most of the cars in Poland seem to have been produced in the 1990s or early 2000s. A lot of these people who also own these cars live in city centres. My old car was also a diesel manufactured in 1996, and even though I no longer live in any particular city centre or drive an old diesel, but a newer one, I’m also wondering how I would react to the news. I suppose it will force car owners to make a decision on what kind of car to drive, and no doubt there will be a storm brewing among drivers about the new scheme. Down in the city of Kraków, where pollution is spinning out of control, I can understand that such a move is more than necessary: after all, it is not just coal burning stoves which are causing a headache for everyone involved, but for the most part it is vehicle emissions. And you have to remember that the scheme will only gradually phase out the old motors. Nevertheless, it will be a shock, but a much needed one in order to try and make Poland’s cities cleaner. And boy, do they need all the help they can get right now…