Half the Cars are Banned From Paris

This morning the French government issued a law forcing half the motor vehicles in Paris (cars, bikes and scooters) to stay parked today. Their owners will have to take public transport, which is free for the day. This law was introduced in an effort to diminish smog in the city, as pollution levels have been comparable to Beijing for the last few days.

Since 5:30AM, only vehicles with an odd-numbered license plate are allowed to drive in the city. Hybrids and electric cars are exempted, as are cars used for carpooling, however all trucks are banned. If the pollution levels had remained high, only cars with an even-numbered plate would have been allowed to drive tomorrow.

The situation has improved however. Traffic dropped by nearly 60% in the city, and the smog level has dropped to a more acceptable level. This convinced the government to lift the ban at the end of the day. The Parisian police gave 3,859 infraction tickets in one day, collecting nearly 85,000 euros in fines.

Paris is not the first city to ban cars according to licence plate. Beijing has done it since 2007, and a lot of South American cities are implementing similar measures. Even Rome has restricted car usage since 1990. In their case however, the situation worsened - people just went and bought a second, older car, so they could still drive every day. Traffic stayed the same, but pollution (and parking problems) went up…