Paris Says, No Through-Traffic Please!
Drive Sweden
Strategic Innovation Program for development of sustainable mobility solutions.
Topic from?Drive Sweden's Smart Mobility Newsletter,?Feb 24,?Subscribe here
Bloomberg reports?that the city of Paris plans to ban non-essential through-traffic from its city centre by the 2024 Olympics.?
The plan to ban all through-traffic by the 2024 Olympics is expected to eliminate approximately half of the daily car journeys through the city centre. Or, to put it into numbers: today there are between 350k and 500k daily trips through this area. Cutting this in half should free up space for trees, bike lanes, and pedestrians while also reducing noise and air pollution.
The proposed zone will cover both banks of the Seine, stretching from Place de la Concorde in the west to Place de la Bastille in the east, using boulevard Saint-Germain as its southern border and Boulevards de Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin as the northern limit. This is an area of 14 square kilometres or 5.4 square miles. The zone will not be entirely car-free, as it will be possible to enter the zone to visit people, shops, hotels and so on. Public transport will also continue to operate in the zone.?
However, drivers will be fined if they are caught using the zone for travelling across Paris. Random checks on vehicles leaving the zone, cross-referenced with camera images that capture numberplates will allow authorities to ensure no through-traffic takes place.?
The city of Brussels announced a similar move just hours after Paris. The historic heart of the city within the inner ringway was a key crosstown car corridor and has already started to change shape as pedestrians and flower beds get priority, allowing restaurants and cafés to reclaim the streets. The new move will banish non-local traffic altogether.?
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Personal Comment:
Brussels and Paris are not alone to move towards greener inner cities through regulation. We have seen similar attempts in Oslo, Santa Monica, New York, and Madrid (where a newly elected Mayor faced a?backlash?as he tried to revoke the ban).?
Banning cars and lorries can have a positive impact on local business as well as provide residents with better air quality and lessen noise levels. But what happens in the surrounding areas? Banning 250k trips doesn’t mean those trips simply disappear in Paris each day. It is possible, as some studies indicate, that increasing the safety of?walking and biking leads?more people to change their behaviour, thereby converting some of these trips from cars to other means.?Women in particular appear?prone to change their travel behaviour based on increased safety. The Guardian has a nice?visualization?of how low traffic neighbourhoods in London can increase democratic and social sustainability aspects as they benefit the most deprived citizens.?
Today’s comment is therefore raising the banner for a more ambitious conclusion than we usually provide. Reducing road traffic is an important step towards more sustainable cities, and not just from a narrow ecological point of view. However, so is access to societal services and the places and people we need and want to see. Finding new modes of mobility is key for a sustainable transition but so is finding a suitable balance between business and regulation so that the change can be maintained.
Written by?H?kan Burden, RISE Mobility & Systems?
Policy Expert / Innovation manager
3 年New week, fresh start! So, last week I decided to focus on the positive aspects of no-go-zones for through-traffic. It just felt very necessary to see possibilities despite the world being as it is. Today I feel that I also want to be more balanced in my account of the ambitions for Paris. Specifically regarding the way they are to enforce the zone. A mix of camera surveillance and police interventions is not the only way to enforce drivers to not use the zone as a through-cut. In fact, from a personal view I don't agree that it makes drivers do the right thing. It rather encourages to find new ways of beating and bemoaning the system. Tactical urbanism is another way of doing it. By using the street as an extension for restaurants and growing green spaces in the right way, it just becomes to slow to use them for through traffic. At the same time, those who have to take their vehicles into the zone can without having to justify it to the police and put up with being monitored. So, less stick and more carrot, please. Which also goes for the world at large