Paris bans cars from the city in experiment

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Europe

Parisians were asked to leave their cars at home and instead roller-blade, bike or stroll through the City of Light on Sunday, as part of an experiment designed to keep the streets free for slower, clean forms of transport.

This is the third time the French capital has experimented with a car ban, but this time the ban covered the whole 105 square kilometer (40 square mile) heart of the city.

"This initiative requires an enormous amount of preparation," city mayor Anne Hidalgo told Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday. "Particularly because this year the zone has been enlarged to the whole of Paris."

Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist Party, was elected in 2014 promising to tackle pollution in the capital and she has focused on building new bus and cycle lanes and reclaiming roads, with some critics considering her agenda to be too radical and anti-car.

"What's it for?", grumbled Pierre Chasseray, the head of the lobby group "40 million drivers" when asked about the car-free day by AFP. "It's just PR to say that cars aren't good."

The restrictions came into force at 11:00 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) and will last until 6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).

Although billed officially as "The Day without Cars", some exceptions apply, meaning the streets are not completely deserted: taxis, buses and emergency or social services vehicles are allowed to drive.

Residents who need to use their vehicle to visit an elderly or handicapped person or with a genuine emergency are also allowed to ply the streets, though they must respect a 30 kilometer an hour (20 miles an hour) speed limit in place.

Hundreds of police and city officials have been deployed to check on drivers, with fines for unauthorized driving ranging from 90 to 135 euros (105 to 159 US dollars).

"The aim is simply to enjoy the city in a different way," said Paris city transport official Christophe Najdovski on Friday. "It's a day that is meant to be educational, fun and friendly."

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Source(s): AFP