The objective of Madrid as a city is to banish combustion cars, first from the center, progressively from the entire capital. For now, Madrid Central and Madrid 360 have already imposed limitations on some types of vehicles, but there is a problem that they still do not know how to deal with: the 54 gas stations that are inside the M-30.
According to Xavier Querol, research professor at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), these service stations have a “direct effect on air quality” and are especially vulnerable to pollution.
This is due to two reasons: it is a place of concentration of vehicles, which turn off and start the engine, which produces particles that, when hit by the sun, turn into ozone; and during fuel supply operations a similar process occurs.
In fact, according to a study published by the journal ‘Journal of environmental management’ in 2010, the presence of refueling points affects their surroundings and it would be advisable that in urban planning there were no houses less than 100 meters from them, something that logically does not occur in the most central stations.
According to the Madrid 360 plan, one of its objectives is to preserve air quality and avoid “gas emissions, smoke, odours, particles or any other potentially polluting substance”. This would involve eliminating gas stations and replacing them with electric charging points, but the process is quite complex.
The first thing to take into account is the fact that many people who use combustion cars still live inside the M-30, so leaving them without refueling places does not seem like a very considered alternative.
The second is that in order to eliminate the service stations, agreements must be reached with the oil companies. The last one signed was in 2005, with Repsol and Cepsa, to eliminate 12 gas stations from the center, with the Atocha station being the last to withdraw in 2016. To achieve this, both entities had to be given land on the outskirts to establish new stations.
Both companies are currently the largest owners of gas stations in the center of Madrid: Repsol has 54% of the remaining ones and Cepsa, 31%.
Source: The World