Paris Mayor Unveils New Plans To Permanently Pedestrianise City Centre

[M II A II R II K]

Paris Mayor Unveils New Plans To Permanently Pedestrianise City Centre


January 9th, 2017

By Caroline Mortimer

Read More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7516186.html

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Anne Hildalgo announced the move, which aims to halve the number of private cars on the road, months after 3.3km of road along the Seine were closed due to a dangerous spike in pollution which caused a cloud of smog to settle over the city.

- Speaking to French newspaper the Journal du Dimanche she said the plans were part of her campaign to “reconquer the public space” for pedestrians and cyclists. She said the capital’s current road infrastructure, which is built around cars, is “archaic” and believes there is an “environmental urgency” to act. --- Under the plans a 1km stretch of road along the river from Place de la Concorde and the Pont Royal will be closed and traffic will also be restricted on two main roads running east to west – the upper highway on the right bank and the rue de Rivoli.

- Ms Hidalgo also has plans for an electric tram service running from City Hall to Saint Cloud park as part of the city’s bid to host the Olympics in 2024. The news will anger car users in the city as well as her political opponents who warn of lengthy traffic jams which will increase pollution. --- The left-wing mayor said she was “acting for future generations” and would not be cowed by “nostalgia” for cars. She said: “The idea is to go step by step towards the pedestrianisation of the city centre. It will remain open to vehicles belonging to local residents, the police, emergency services and for deliveries, but not to all comers.

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[10023]

I don't see any mention of taxis or car services (including Uber) in that list of exceptions. Paris needs both.

Expensive congestion charges and regulating the hours that commercial vehicles can operate (i.e., non-peak times) are the ways to deal with traffic and pollution.

[M II A II R II K]

Also how will they distinguish between local cars and outsiders.

[10023]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Also how will they distinguish between local cars and outsiders.

Number plates presumably, or a badge. The same way it works for resident parking.

Still, taxis and hired cars are necessary. They can easily be electric.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Also how will they distinguish between local cars and outsiders.

Also, there are clear equity concerns. If you're saying "only Parisians living in the core can drive in the core" that's kind of a FU to everyone else. Only wealthy locals are allowed to use the streets?

If they proposed that in NYC, there would be a massive backlash based on class concerns. Only allowing Upper East Siders to drive in their neighborhood?

[montréaliste]

Frankly though, for a tourist not to be able to negotiate Paris with available transit solutions is dumb. It's all there. Taxis and Uber, fine. In time we may all be awash in Electric though, that may be the ultimate gamechanger. If there is too much car pollution, let's cut out as much as possible.
Give operators with service vehicles, delivery trucks that are Electric bonus points to work the arrondissements. Work with incitement rather than punishing measures.

[10023]

I don't suspect many tourists are renting cars in Paris. It's suburbanites and people from other nearby regions, just as it is in London and NYC. And as in those places, it's stupid.

Make people pay €20/day to drive into the central arrondissements and that would alleviate some of it. But you've gotta have commercial vehicles, and you've gotta have taxis.

[Leo the Dog]

This is a measure to reduce air pollution? I imagine an unintended consequence would steer commerce out of the central city and into the surrounding suburbs with no net loss of air pollution in metro Paris.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by 10023

I don't suspect many tourists are renting cars in Paris. It's suburbanites and people from other nearby regions, just as it is in London and NYC. And as in those places, it's stupid.
...

I've used a rental car (a ZipCar, actually) while in Paris before, but it was because my partner wanted to go see where the Battle of Agincourt was fought, it wasn't to drive around the city itself.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

This is a measure to reduce air pollution? I imagine an unintended consequence would steer commerce out of the central city and into the surrounding suburbs with no net loss of air pollution in metro Paris.

I doubt it would result in very much going outside the city. It's so expensive in Paris already that most businesses in the center are there only because they need to be. You can't just move restaurants to the suburbs, nor any of the tourist-dependent businesses. Maybe a few furniture stores would move, but they're in the city center because there's demand for them there from the many carless residents.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

This is a measure to reduce air pollution? I imagine an unintended consequence would steer commerce out of the central city and into the surrounding suburbs with no net loss of air pollution in metro Paris.

Yeah, I seriously doubt this would lead to any major loss of commerce. There may be equity concerns, but no one is operating a business in Central Paris because it's cheap or convenient.

[10023]

Originally Posted by emathias

I've used a rental car (a ZipCar, actually) while in Paris before, but it was because my partner wanted to go see where the Battle of Agincourt was fought, it wasn't to drive around the city itself.

Yeah, that's not quite the same.

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yeah, I seriously doubt this would lead to any major loss of commerce. There may be equity concerns, but no one is operating a business in Central Paris because it's cheap or convenient.

Which may be true, I just don't see this reducing air pollution.

You could end all vehicle traffic in lower manhattan, but air quality would remain the same.

The key is not road closures, but technology, high mpg hybrids, hydrogen (new Toyota Mirai), or electric vehicles like Teslas or Volts.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

Which may be true, I just don't see this reducing air pollution.

You could end all vehicle traffic in lower manhattan, but air quality would remain the same.

The key is not road closures, but technology, high mpg hybrids, hydrogen (new Toyota Mirai), or electric vehicles like Teslas or Volts.

Actually, you'd be surprised how localized the effects of pollution from vehicular exhaust can be. Oxford Street in London has some of the worst air in Europe, largely because of idling buses sitting in constant traffic, but it's totally different a few blocks away. Remember that vehicle exhaust is dishcharged just a couple of feet above the ground, and those particles are heavier than the air around them, so a lot of it just sort of sits.

See link:
http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/nowcast.asp

The better argument against this is that traffic congestion (and idling vehicles) are the worst thing for air quality. A congestion charge helps as it makes driving uneconomical for many people (including many of those with the oldest cars). You give discounts for hybrid/electric vehicles to encourage their use, and you regulate emissions for commercial and livery vehicles at a stricter standard than the applicable national or state regulations.

"Pedestrianizing" all of central Paris sounds completely unworkable. It's never been a pedestrian city - before it had automobiles, it had streetcars and trams and carriages. And I don't know what Times Square is like these days (other than best avoided as always), but the changes there have certainly made traffic worse.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 10023

And I don't know what Times Square is like these days (other than best avoided as always), but the changes there have certainly made traffic worse.

I don't think that's true. Weekday crosstown traffic in Midtown, as always, is the same level of awful, and NYC DOT reports that average speed limits on the West Side are basically the same pre-and post-pedestrianization.

[mrsmartman]

This simply sounds too radical...



Source: http://www.medievalists.net/tag/paris/

[ue]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yeah, I seriously doubt this would lead to any major loss of commerce. There may be equity concerns, but no one is operating a business in Central Paris because it's cheap or convenient.

I realize you're meaning convenient in a different context here, so I don't disagree with what you're saying. However, Paris is a popular place to set up business precisely because of the convenient access to a large talent pool (which is cyclic as it makes Paris a popular place to move to) and world markets (major train, highway, airport networks). Different kind of convenient than you're meaning, I presume, though.

[mousquet]

Hidalgo's just forgetting where she came from... Whatever, her extremist plan will serve the surrounding suburbs very well. A fair deal to me, eventually.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

This is a measure to reduce air pollution? I imagine an unintended consequence would steer commerce out of the central city and into the surrounding suburbs with no net loss of air pollution in metro Paris.

Would it impact commerce that negatively? I'd assume the portion of people that commute or frequent the business by car is low (<20%) and even those could switch to transit.

[Minato Ku]

This plan will made Rue de Rivoli more jammed than today. What's the point to have less car if congestion is worsened ? It doesn't reduce the pollution.
Other similar plan have been pretty much a failure (boulevard Magenta, Boulevard de l'Hopital), the car may have less space but congestion remain, so it doesn't remove the feel of car-heavy place. Several record of traffic jam seen last year and several peak of pollution despite more than a decade of those "eco friendly" policies. Paris mayor need to understand that the city is not Amsterdam and that the current municipality is just a small piece (yet very important) of a much bigger city.