Paris Bans Cars For Seven Hours, World Seems to Continue
Cars were banned from the city center of Paris for seven hours Sunday as that city finds ways to manage its growing pollution and congestion problems, Time reported. A group called Paris sans Voiture organized the event in an effort to bring attention to climate policy.
Buses, ambulances and other public transportation were allowed on city streets during the ban, however private vehicles were forbidden from city streets in a broad swath of neighborhoods and tourist destinations including the Champs Élysées, Place Stalingrad, Place de la Republique, the Left Bank, the Place de la Bastille, the area around the Eiffel Tower and the Bois de Vincennes and Boulogne.
The city will be hosting a UN Climate Change conference in December.
Paris isn’t the first city to host an event. According to the group Brussels has held similar car-free Sundays since 2002.
Critics said the day didn’t go far enough, that it should have been held on a weekday to completely cripple educate people in traffic, and that the city center’s perimeters weren’t broad enough.
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What's next, showing papers to a German to go somewhere? Perhaps the people need to bring the head removing devices back out? Having said that I've never been to Paris but I would imagine folks need move around for business and leisure purposes.
"Critics said the day didn’t go far enough" Hmmm....
I think this would work well for certain streets in San Francisco during the weekends. I love cars, but in dense, highly congested urban areas, there are definitely times when they become the least efficient method of transportation. It's probably worth experimenting with in multiple cities and multiple implementations. Eventually, some cities may discover a formula that works. It doesn't have to be perfect, just better than the status quo.
Having a block party and celebrating won't change the fact that the traffic/pollution is bad in their city. Instead of having a block party, the Parisians should DO something about the traffic and pollution. Since nothing's happen, then those citizens don't care enough to pester their politicians to change the laws or something.