According to a council decree, taxis which pre-date this period will not be able to enter much of central Lisbon on weekdays from 7am to 9pm in a bid to reduce emissions in the capital.
This measure will be revised in 12 months from now to include taxis registered before July 1996.
Similar restrictions came into effect for passenger cars in January.
Further restrictions since then mean cars with licence plates dated earlier than 2000, are now banned from circulating within an area named ‘Zone 1’, which stretches from Avenida da Liberdade to the Baixa, delimited to the north by Rua Alexandre Herculano, south by Praça do Comércio and covering the area between Cais do Sodré and Campo das Cebolas.
Cars with licence plates pre-dating 1996 are also banned from driving in another area defined as ‘Zone 2’, delimited by Avenida de Ceuta, the Eixo Norte-Sul, and the Avenidas of Forças Armadas, Estados Unidos, Marechal António Spínola, Santo Condestável and Infante D. Henrique.
Ambulances, historic vehicles, residents’ vehicles, police and military vehicles, prison vans, valuables vans, natural gas-powered cars and motorbikes are exempt from the restrictions.