Driving in Lucca: Low emission zone

Lucca, Italy · Low emission zone

Official name Zona Verde / Area LEZ (Low Emission Zone) del Comune di Lucca

In force in Lucca right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 11:04 · Europe/Rome

The ban runs continuously and has done since 1 November 2019, so this timetable answers "in force" whenever it is asked. What decides a driver's case here is the vehicle's Euro class, not the hour or the day.

Public holidays make no difference: the order provides no holiday, weekend or seasonal relief, and none is inferred.

⚠️ This is a standing structural measure, not one of the episodic anti-smog orders Italian cities issue when PM10 exceeds the limit on consecutive days. If Lucca adds an episodic restriction on top, it would be a separate instrument and is not held here.

The twelve open through-routes are a geographic exception, not a temporal one: they are open at all times, to banned and unbanned vehicles alike.

Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.

What applies

Lucca's older-vehicle ban is a separate scheme from the walled centre's ZTL and it covers far more ground: the "Zona Verde/Area LEZ", signposted across the built-up part of the municipality, where a list of vehicle classes is simply forbidden to drive — "è istituito il divieto di transito per i seguenti veicoli".

It is an air-quality measure against PM10, made by mayoral order in 2019 and in force since 1 November 2019 "fino a nuova disposizione": no hours, no season, no charge and no permit to buy.

What is banned, as the city's February 2026 rulebook states it, is Euro 0 petrol cars; Euro 0, Euro 1, Euro 2 and Euro 3 diesel cars and motor caravans; Euro 0 and Euro 1 mopeds and motorcycles; Euro 0 to Euro 2 diesel goods vehicles both under and over 3.5 tonnes; Euro 0 special-purpose vehicles; and Euro 0 buses, whether on public service or on tourist work.

Twelve named through-routes stay open so that traffic can cross the area without entering it, and eleven categories of vehicle are exempt — emergency and utility services, funeral processions, cars carrying a disabled person's badge, people travelling to booked medical appointments, vehicles on their way to a scheduled roadworthiness test, historic vehicles with a certificate carried on board, and diesels fitted with a type-approved particulate filter.

A visitor's car is not exempt merely for being foreign or hired, and the ban applies whether or not you also hold a ZTL permit.

Source: Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l., read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l. — "Piano Attuativo della Mobilità e della Sosta del Centro Storico di Lucca. Disciplinare", Lucca, Febbraio 2026, §1.2 "Regolamentazione della circolazione nella Zona Verde"

Daily charge

Nothing is charged and nothing is on sale. The Zona Verde is a prohibition on driving, not a charging scheme: the order bans the listed classes from circulating and provides exemptions by category, with no daily ticket, no registration and no payable derogation for a visitor.

A car that falls in a banned class does not become admissible by paying; it becomes admissible only by falling into one of the eleven exempt categories, or by having a type-approved particulate filter fitted in the case of a diesel. The permit tariffs published for Lucca belong to the historic-centre ZTL, a different scheme with a different area, and they buy nothing here.

When it operates

Continuous. The mayoral order imposes the transit ban "a far data dal 1 novembre 2019 e fino a nuova disposizione" and sets no hours of the day, no days of the week and no winter season — unlike many Italian anti-PM10 measures, this one is not a seasonal or episodic restriction that lifts when the air improves. The February 2026 rulebook restates the ban in the same unqualified form.

What may change is the list of classes rather than the clock: the area-wide Piano d'Azione Comunale approved by Deliberazione di Giunta Comunale n.

340/2023 for Lucca, Altopascio, Capannori, Montecarlo and Porcari provides under its structural measure "M-1" for progressively further restrictions on diesel vehicles, and the rulebook says that when such measures are adopted its own provisions are to be read and applied accordingly.

Source: Comune di Lucca, read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca — Ordinanza del Sindaco n. 1840 del 31/10/2019, "Qualità dell'aria ambiente. Zona Verde/Area LEZ -Low Emission Zone-. Provvedimenti per la riduzione del rischio di superamento del valore limite giornaliero delle polveri sottili PM10", as republished by the concessionaire Lucca Plus S.r.l.

Area covered

The "Zona Verde/Area LEZ" of the Comune di Lucca — the built-up area of the municipality, which is much larger than the walled centre and takes in the ring of suburbs around it. Its extent is defined by the plan annexed to Deliberazione della Giunta Comunale n. 362/2005 (with the later Deliberazione n.

73/2019 approving the 2019–2021 air-quality action plan), and on the ground it is marked by road signs: the order says the ban applies in the zone "segnalata da apposita cartellonistica stradale come da planimetria allegata". That annexed plan is not published as a separate file, so the perimeter cannot be reproduced here street by street.

What both the order and the February 2026 rulebook do write out is the set of through-routes that stay open by way of derogation, so that traffic can cross the area without being caught by the ban: via Sarzanese between Ponte San Pietro and via Einaudi; via Einaudi; via Città Gemelle; viale Europa between the McDonald's and viale Carducci; via Catalani between via Geminiani and via Papi; via Geminiani; piazzale Italia; via Nieri; via nuova per Pisa between via di Sottomonte and km 9.470; via di Tiglio between the municipal boundary (SR 439 at km 34.150) and via di Piaggia; via di Piaggia; and via Romana between the Arancio cemetery and via Alighieri.

Those twelve are the exception, not the zone.

Source: Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l., read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l. — "Piano Attuativo della Mobilità e della Sosta del Centro Storico di Lucca. Disciplinare", Lucca, Febbraio 2026, §1.2 "Delimitazione della Zona Verde"

Why there is no map here
The zone's extent exists as a drawing that the Comune has not put online. The mayoral order defines it as the area "segnalata da apposita cartellonistica stradale come da planimetria allegata, parte integrante del presente atto, approvata dalla Giunta Comunale con Delibera n. 362/2005" — a plan annexed to a 2005 deliberation — and the copy of the order republished by the concessionaire carries the text without that annex. Measured on 2026-09-22: the Comune's own site search returns nothing for "zona verde", "qualità dell'aria" or "mappa", the concessionaire's permits page publishes only the order, the rulebook and the application forms, and no municipal open-data catalogue could be found. The Albo Pretorio has a search form for ordinances but it is a Liferay portlet that only answers to POST, so it could not be queried from here, and the later order n. 2772 of 24 December 2024 — which replaced the 2019 one and is the instrument actually in force — was not retrievable at all. Since the zone is signposted on the ground, a perimeter we drew ourselves would look like the city's own and would decide whether a driver's older car is committing an offence over a much wider area than the walls, so Lucca is warned from its city anchor and the area field carries the twelve open through-routes the documents do write out.
Petrol standard

Euro 0 petrol cars are banned — "autovetture (benzina) Euro zero", meaning cars and motor caravans of category M1 without a catalytic converter and not type-approved under Directive 91/441/EEC or later. A petrol car of Euro 1 or better is not caught by the list.

Mopeds and motorcycles are treated separately and more strictly: both Euro 0 (type-approved before 17 June 1999) and Euro 1 (type-approved after 17 June 1999) are banned, so a two-wheeler needs to be Euro 2 or better.

Source: Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l., read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l. — "Piano Attuativo della Mobilità e della Sosta del Centro Storico di Lucca. Disciplinare", Lucca, Febbraio 2026, §1.2

Diesel standard

Diesel cars and motor caravans up to and including Euro 3 are banned — "autovetture (diesel) Euro zero, Euro 1, Euro 2, Euro 3" — so a diesel car needs to be Euro 4 or better.

Diesel goods vehicles are banned up to and including Euro 2, both the N1 category up to 3.5 tonnes and the N2/N3 categories above it, and Euro 0 special-purpose vehicles are banned at any weight. 🚨 The Euro 3 diesel car is the class to check: the 2019 order that is still the document linked from the permits page bans diesel cars only up to Euro 2, and Euro 3 was added by the later order n.

2772 of 24 December 2024, which the February 2026 rulebook names as having updated and replaced it. A diesel fitted with a type-approved particulate filter is exempt from the ban whatever its class, and the exemption is claimed by the vehicle's own documents rather than by registering with anyone.

Source: Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l., read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca / Lucca Plus S.r.l. — "Piano Attuativo della Mobilità e della Sosta del Centro Storico di Lucca. Disciplinare", Lucca, Febbraio 2026, §1.2

Penalty if you do not comply

The order states which law punishes a breach and not how much it costs: "l'inosservanza della presente ordinanza è sanzionata ai sensi dell'art. 7 comma 1 lettera b) e comma 13-bis del d.lgs. n.

285/1992" — article 7 of the Italian Highway Code, whose amounts are set nationally and revised for inflation every two years rather than by the Comune. Neither the order nor the February 2026 rulebook gives a figure, and the Comune's "Tributi, finanze e contravvenzioni" service category publishes no penalty page for either of Lucca's schemes. Not estimated.

Enforcement is by the police: the order instructs the Polizia Municipale to intensify anti-pollution checks over and above its ordinary patrols, so this is a scheme enforced at the roadside rather than by the ZTL cameras.

How to comply
  • Check your car's Euro class before you set off, not at the sign. A diesel car of Euro 3 or older, a petrol car of Euro 0, or a motorcycle of Euro 0 or Euro 1 may not be driven in the zone at all — there is no ticket, no permit and no registration that changes that.
  • 🚨 If your diesel is Euro 3, do not trust the 2019 order that is still the file linked from the permit office's page: it bans diesel cars only up to Euro 2. Euro 3 was added by the later order n. 2772 of 24 December 2024, and the city's February 2026 rulebook lists it among the banned classes.
  • A type-approved particulate filter (dispositivo antiparticolato omologato) fitted to a diesel takes it out of the ban, whatever its Euro class. Carry the paperwork.
  • Crossing without entering: twelve through-routes are open by derogation, including via Sarzanese between Ponte San Pietro and via Einaudi, via Einaudi, via Città Gemelle, viale Europa as far as viale Carducci, piazzale Italia, via nuova per Pisa, via di Tiglio and via Romana. If you are only passing Lucca, those are the roads that stay legal for a banned vehicle.
  • Historic vehicles are exempt, but only with the Attestato di Storicità or the Certificato di Identità from the appropriate register, and the order requires the document to be kept on board and shown on request.
  • Disabled drivers are exempt with the badge provided for by the Highway Code, and so are vehicles carrying someone to a booked medical appointment, on production of the medical certificate.
  • Vehicles on their way to a booked roadworthiness test (revisione) are exempt for the strictly necessary route, with the booking document from the Motorizzazione Civile or the authorised test centre.
  • This ban is separate from, and larger than, the historic-centre ZTL. Holding a ZTL permit does not exempt you: the rulebook adds that a ZTL permit held on a Euro 0, 1, 2 or Euro 3 diesel cannot be renewed once it expires.
  • If your car is banned, park outside the zone and come in by bus, on foot or by bicycle — the city's own visitor advice points to the car parks outside the walls along the wall circuit, with bus and shuttle links into the centre.
  • Expect the list to get stricter rather than looser: the 2023 area-wide air-quality action plan for Lucca and four neighbouring municipalities provides for progressively further diesel restrictions under its measure M-1.
Source: Comune di Lucca, read 2026-09-22
Full citation

Comune di Lucca — Ordinanza del Sindaco n. 1840 del 31/10/2019 (exemptions and open through-routes) together with the February 2026 rulebook §1.2, which restates both and names the classes now in force

Sources

Next scheduled re-check: 2026-12-21.

Before you set off

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