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Central Paris to go car free for a day
Only electric-powered private vehicles will be allowed in historic city centre to persuade residents to tackle pollution
Private cars with petrol or diesel engines have been banned from many parts of central Paris on Sunday in an attempt to convince residents they could reduce pollution and congestion by living without them.
Only buses, taxis and electric cars are allowed in areas affected by the day-long ban, which covers about a third of the city and comes two months before the UN Paris summit on climate change. Motorbikes and scooters will also have to stay off the roads.
Proposed by a citizens’ group called “Paris without cars” and taken up by the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the ban will be enforced on most of the Champs-Elysées, areas around the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, the Luxembourg gardens, the Canal Saint-Martin and central neighbourhoods bordering the Seine. Motorists in other parts of the city will have to observe a speed limit of 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph), as will drivers of electric cars.
The aim is to demonstrate how the high pollution and chronic traffic congestion that have long afflicted the city could be lessened if the numbers of private cars were reduced.
A partial driving ban was imposed in March after pollution levels in Paris briefly exceeded those of Shanghai. Cars with even number plates were ordered off the roads on one day, and those with odd numbers the following day.
Older diesel vehicles with high emissions are being phased out in the city, while lorries and buses weighing more than three tons and more than 14 years old have been prohibited from driving through Paris during the day since the beginning of this month. Part of the Left Bank has been turned into a pedestrian area.
Ms Hidalgo says she is hoping the car-free day will convince sceptics that “Paris can operate without cars” but environmentalists said the ban did not go far enough.
“We wanted the area concerned to cover all of Paris,” said Christophe Najdovski, a Green deputy mayor in charge of transport. “The government did not understand the symbolic and educational implications of the day without cars. It is a disappointment.”
However, he said the Greens were lobbying for the car-free day to become an annual event and hoped it would cover a larger area next year. “We’re already working on a more ambitious programme for 2016 so that the car-free area can include suburban areas as well.”