Iceland: 1 scheme to know about before you drive in.
Reykjavík has one driving restriction on our books: the Samþykkt um göngugötur í Reykjavík (limited traffic zone). What is a limited traffic zone?
Sources last read on 2026-09-16, from the authorities' own pages. The next scheduled check is 2027-03-23.
Reykjavík's göngugötur — pedestrian streets — are a ban rather than a charge, and the ban is the default: in a street the city has designated a göngugata, driving a motor vehicle is not allowed at all, and no fee, emission class or time of day buys a general right of entry.
The rule lives in the Samþykkt um göngugötur í Reykjavík, which the city council adopted on 6 September 2022 under Articles 10, 84 and 86 of the Icelandic road traffic act, umferðarlög nr. 77/2019.
Article 2 of the samþykkt lists the four ways a motor vehicle may lawfully be in one: those specially permitted by Article 10 of the traffic act itself, the city's own service vehicles, residents and businesses holding a göngugötukort under Article 4, and anyone holding a one-off afnotaleyfi from the city under Article 5.
A fifth category comes from the city's own account of the newest street: holders of a disabled parking card, stæðiskort hreyfihamlaðra, are exempt from the driving ban, and police, ambulance and fire service have unrestricted access. Whoever is admitted drives at no more than 10 km/h, gives way to people on foot, and may not park except in marked bays.
The göngugötukort is not a season ticket sold at a price: it is issued for a parking space, one card per space, and only where the approved planning puts that space on a back lot reachable no other way than through a pedestrian street.
Deliveries are the one door that opens on a clock — motor-vehicle unloading is permitted between 07:00 and 11:00 Monday to Friday and between 08:00 and 11:00 on Saturdays, with the exact window shown on the sign at the street, and delivery without a motor vehicle, by cargo bike or electric trolley, is allowed at any hour. The sanction is national rather than municipal: reglugerð nr.
1240/2019 prices unauthorised motor traffic in a göngugata at ISK 20,000 under Article 10 of the traffic act, with a 25% discount for payment within 30 days. The scheme is live and it grows: Austurstræti, from Pósthússtræti to Ingólfstorg, was formally opened as a göngugata on 3 November 2025, making one continuous pedestrian area from Lækjartorg to Ingólfstorg, in line with the Kvosin traffic plan approved in 2020.