Residents of the French capital Paris had the chance to vote on Sunday over whether to expand pedestrianization in the city in a bid to further discourage car use and improve the quality of the city's air.
Paris has had a socialist local authority since 2001, during which time car traffic in the city has more than halved, and current Mayor Anne Hidalgo has been in power since 2014, overseeing efforts to make the city greener and more pedestrian-friendly.
In 2023 there was a vote to ban rented e-scooters from city streets, and last year another poll resulted in a three-fold increase in parking charges for large sports utility vehicles, although in both cases, turnout was extremely low.
Last October, a speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour was introduced on the city's orbital motorway the Peripherique. Hidalgo defended this, telling broadcaster RTL "it is my decision … we've been working on it for 18 years, this isn't a new topic", but it drew widespread criticism, including from then-transport minister Francois Durovray.
He said he hoped any future similar decisions "which will affect millions of people in the Paris region … will take a more collaborative and balanced approach". A local government opponent of Hidalgo's called the enforced slowdown a "denial of democracy".
If the latest proposal is approved, it would result in 500 more streets becoming pedestrianized, taking the number of the city's so-called green lungs up to 700 streets, around one-tenth of the total, with locals being consulted as to which ones. It would also get rid of as many as 10,000 parking spots, on top of 10,000 already removed since 2020.
Despite Hidalgo's efforts, Paris still trails other European capital cities in terms of green infrastructure, with figures from the European Environment Agency showing that it makes up just 26 percent of the area of Paris, compared to a European average of 41 percent.
"For the past 25 years we've gradually been reclaiming public space for pedestrian traffic, for gentle traffic, and with 'garden streets', to create lungs within neighborhoods, the places where we live," said Deputy Mayor Patrick Bloche.
On Hidalgo's watch, 84 kilometers of cycle lanes have been created in Paris, and between the end of pandemic lockdown and 2023, bicycle usage rose by 71 percent.
But the latest proposal has proved divisive, highlighting differences in lifestyles between both central and suburban Paris, and also between the region around the capital and the rest of the country.
Across France, car ownership is 85 percent. In suburban Paris two out of three households own a car, and in central Paris, just one in three. Opponents of the proposal say that the city should not be treated as "a museum".
"It's still a city where people work, where workers are forced to get around, where people from the greater Paris region are forced to come, where there are stores," said Philippe Noziere, head of motoring lobby group 40 Million Drivers.
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