“CityBlitz” articles are bite-sized reactions to relevant news items. For full-length write ups, check out the archive here.
Today’s read is 3-5 minutes.
Hello friends,
Welcome to another edition of CityBits’ CityBlitz. Today, we’re looking at a major urban policy development in one of Europe’s Frenchiest cities, Paris.
What Happened?
I’ve already written about how Paris and its mayor Anne Hidalgo have been steadily deprioritizing cars over the past few years, but for today we’ll just be focusing on her latest, and likely most controversial policy: banning through traffic from the city center starting in 2024.
English language media has already started using terms like “car-free zone” or “Paris’ car ban” but those are both a little misleading.
So before you get on Twitter and start yelling, let’s look at what this policy actually means.
THINGS THE POLICY ACTUALLY DOES
The policy bans through traffic in the city center starting in 2024.
Two really important terms to call out here:
City center: The city of Paris is divided up into 20 administrative regions called Arrondissements, of which regions 1-4 comprise the “city center” (see map below). So this policy ONLY applies to those 4 regions, an area of ~5.4 sq miles (~14 sq kilometers).
Through traffic: “Through traffic” refers to any journey that starts and ends outside of a specific zone. So in the map of Paris below, if you wanted to drive from section 8 to section 11, you would have to drive AROUND the city center, you can no longer drive through it.
So, if your destination is within regions 1-4, you can still drive there!
Let me say that one more time because it’s really important:
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE CITY CENTER, YOU CAN STILL DRIVE THERE.
I’m harping so much on this terminology because critics are sure to misunderstand or use downright false arguments in opposition of it. Take this tweet below:
As we just learned, the answer is “no Benjamin, you can still take a cab there because your destination is within the city center.” Additionally of course you can still walk, cycle, take transit, ride a scooter, etc. wherever you like, this ban only applies to through traffic travel via car.
THINGS THE POLICY DOES NOT DO
Similarly, let’s look at what this policy does not do.
It does NOT ban all cars from the city center: Delivery drivers, people with disabilities, local residents, emergency services, or people who are driving to a destination within the 1st-4th Arrondissements can all still enter via car.
It does NOT ban public transit or alternative modes: Buses, trams, cyclists, scooters, pedestrians, unicycles, rickshaws, and whatever the hell you call these things can still go through the city center unfettered. You can of course also still walk wherever you please.
The plan is estimated to eliminate about half of all total car trips through the city center, and one poll tweeted by the Deputy Mayor of Paris David Belliard notes that ~78% of Parisians support this plan.
Why should I care?
I strongly support these kind of policies. They’re great because:
Cars in cities are generally not chill:
They’re inefficient in terms of energy usage (why would you use a 2,000lb vehicle to move a 150lb person?)
They take up space! Think of the area taken up by 3-4 cars (max 15-20 occupants) vs. a single subway car that (50 to 100+ occupants if we’re getting intimate. Not to mention parking spaces, parking lots, garages, etc.
They disproportionately pollute relative to public transit or other modes
They’re loud and sometimes their horns wake me up too early in the morning
When they hit pedestrians sometimes people die, which is really bad
Targeting through traffic, not just banning cars altogether, is an excellent middle ground. It encourages more sustainable modes of transit while also balancing the realities of modern urban mobility patterns.1An outright ban on all cars, not just through traffic, would be impractical, not to mention probably political suicide.
It’s indicative of a broader trend in European cities:
Madrid enacted a plan like this back in 2018 (though not without controversy)
Brussels announced a similar ban in their central district literally hours after Paris’ announcement
Berlin is also mulling a low-car policy, though it has yet to be officially enacted
Much like forcing your kid to eat their vegetables, Tommy John surgery2, or redownloading Hinge after a breakup, these policies might feel uncomfortable at first but can ultimately lead to huge gains down the road.
Criticisms and Open Questions
In the interest of objective analysis, let’s look at some of the potential downsides or open questions of this policy.
Downside #1: “I like driving/it’s convenient and now I can’t do it”
This ^ is actually a legitimate argument! The thing is, while driving is convenient for the individual passenger, it comes with a whole mess of environmental and safety-related negative externalities for everyone else. This policy will cause some small personal inconveniences, but I’m confident that the societal benefits far outweigh the costs.
Downside #2: Enforcement
This is the big open question for me. How do you actually enforce this? Early reports aren’t super clear on exact methods, but it sounds like it will be a combination of random stops by traffic officials and using cameras to track license plates.
But then are you then permanently assigning people to check the itineraries of random drivers? Traffic police salaries cost the city money, as do a network of cameras. What about privacy? Many citizens will justifiably have concerns about an increased tracking of vehicle movement throughout the city center.
So while I’m still overall very positive on this policy, and am optimistic that more concrete answers will come, there are legitimate concerns that can and should be addressed.
Conclusion
Like I said in my previous article on the city, a lot of Paris’ mobility success can be attributed to the top-down leadership of Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her forcefulness in pushing through anti-car legislation. However with a policy as big and bold as this one, you can only do so much with heavy-handed policymaking. Public sentiment needs to be in her favor for it to have any meaningful impact and longevity.
From now until 2024 when the policy goes into effect, the battle is to get the masses to understand the benefits and wisdom of this through traffic ban. Pop up dining, safer, quieter streets, and smaller-scale “slow streets” or “open streets” plans like many cities did in the pandemic are a good start, and will hopefully generate enthusiasm (and understanding!) for what the policy actually is. And it’s possible that the chain reaction of similar policies in other European cities will have a cascading effect and continue to spread to other urban areas around the world.
It’s too early to say for sure, but I’m hopeful that policies like these will continue to spread and help cities take a huge step towards becoming cleaner, safer, and more livable.
Thanks for reading!
-Max
Despite what a lot of left-leaning urban planning Twitter thinks, we aren’t going to eliminate 100% of cars anytime soon (nor should we).
I actually thought that Tommy John surgery allowed you to throw a baseball faster AFTER surgery, but it appears this is just a common misconception and there’s no evidence that it allows you to reach speeds any higher than you could have pre-surgery. Bet you didn’t expect baseball-themed rehabilitation facts coming out of CityBits but here we are.