The historic center of Paris could soon be partially pedestrianized, if Parisians agree with plans issued through Mayor Anne Hidalgo on 12 May.
According to the proposals, citizens and investors will continue to access the town in motor vehicles, but all other road circulars will be eliminated, revealed David Belliard, Lieutenant Mayor of Paris and Head of Transport.
“180,000 cars drive [in Paris] every day,” Belliard said.
“That’s ten times more than the number of [people] cars out there,” he added.
Paris aims to create a limited traffic zone, or ZTL, where priority will be given to cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorized road users. One consultation indicates that the plans are part of “a motion to recover the urban committed to the automobile in favoring new, friendlier and less polluting uses. “
The creation of a limited traffic zone will create a “less polluted, greener, more non-violent and safer city,” the consultation stresses.
Mayor Hidalgo was re-elected last year with a mandate to “eliminate road traffic,” said Ariel Weil, mayor of central Paris.
Parisians have the opportunity to “appropriate this assignment in the evolution of their living environment,” the consultation says.
“What if we freed up public space to gain advantages from those who wish?”adds the document.
“What if we put well-being in the center of Paris?”
The limited traffic area would greatly reduce car traffic in the centre of the French capital.
“Through traffic, that is, [motor vehicles] crossing the domain without prevention will be prohibited,” the plan says.
Hidalgo has been mayor since 2014 and in her re-election manifesto said she planned to go to the French capital in a neighborhood run-by where “you can locate everything you want within 15 minutes of home. “.
Instead, the Socialist Party’s politics said it was looking for more Parisians to walk and bike in a “fifteen-minute city,” or Ville du Quart d’Hure. Hidalgo aims to remodel Paris in a friendly city, building on the “Bicycle Plan”. Shipping adjustments made their first mandate, which included removing area for cars and building area for cyclists and pedestrians.
I’m a transport journalist for 2018 in the Press Gazette. I’m also a historian: my most recent books include “Roads Weren’t Built for Cars” and “Bike Boom,” both
I Press Gazette’s Transportation Year Reporter in 2018. I’m also a historian. My most recent books come with “Roads Were Not Built for Cars” and “Bike Boom”, published through Island Press, Washington, D. C.