Paris speed limit: the city hits the brakes with a 30 km / h rule

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But will it work? There are questions about whether the standard – which limits drivers to 30 kilometers per hour (19 miles per hour) – will actually reduce emissions. Some critics say it will worsen city rush hour traffic jams and could even increase pollution.

This will depend in part on whether drivers are so fed up with the speed limit that they choose to travel in other ways.

To further deter drivers from bringing vehicles into the city, authorities are also removing 60,000 of Paris ’144,000 parking spaces on public roads to make them“ more accessible to everyone ”and will make better use of underground parking. Some sidewalks will be widened, allowing more space for walking, as well as trees and plants, and new bike lanes will be installed.

According to a Paris city council poll, 59% of the city’s residents were in favor of the new limit, which came into force on Monday, but opposition was much greater in the larger Ile-de-France region. , with 61%.

A delivery driver trapped in traffic on Monday said the change had been “terrible”.

“With the deliveries, it’s terrible. We don’t have time. I was in all the traffic jams. We don’t have time,” he told CNN affiliate BFMTV, which did not name him.

Another driver said it was as if car drivers were traveling in “electric scooters,” calling the rule “crazy.”

A cyclist travels through congested traffic along the Seine River in Paris.

Deputy Mayor of Paris David Belliard, in charge of transport, told BFMTV that he hoped the limit would stop driving more people and would further encourage walking, use of public transport and bicycles.

On Sunday, he posted a tweet to divert online criticism of the new rule.

“A kind clarification of what those who oppose the reduction of the speed limit say: NO, a speed limit of 30 km / h does not increase pollution … But it actually improves safety for cyclists and pedestrians, reduces noise and makes the city quiet, ” He wrote.
City officials said the change would reduce total traffic accidents by 25 percent and fatal crashes by 40 percent, according to a World Health Organization study.

Noise pollution will also be halved, they calculate, saying traffic noise had negative physical and psychological impacts, including stress, insomnia and depression.

The rule change comes after a public consultation held in October and November 2020, in which more than 5,700 people participated.

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