There will still be change for motorists and motorized two-wheeler users in Paris in the coming months. Indeed, the mayor of Paris has just announced new measures concerning traffic within the capital with, always in the same perspective, to reduce traffic in town, and reduce the pollution generated by thermal vehicles.
So, motorcycles and thermal scooters will have to pay 50% of car prices, which they will see, from the 1is August 2021, an increase in the visitor rate from 4 to 6 euros or from 2.4 to 4 euros per hour depending on the arrondissements, detailed David Belliard, EELV deputy in charge of the transformation of public space.
There will also be paid parking in the Bois de Vincennes and Boulogne from the fall. And for offenders, the post-parking fee (FPS), which since 2018 has replaced fines, will increase significantly: from 50 to 75 euros in the center and from 35 to 50 euros in the outer districts. To these measures must be added the elimination of at least 60,000 surface parking spaces during the term of office which ends in 2026.
“The idea is not to remove all cars”
While the City announced free residential parking on Wednesday due to an episode of air pollution, the environmental candidate for mayor in 2020 developed his vision of a city “suitable for hot weather” : the removed parking spaces may be replaced by widened sidewalks, green spaces, terraces, cycle paths, etc.
“We have an imperative need to recover public space to make green spaces, (…) more room for pedestrians, bicycles, (…) because we are suffering the full brunt of the climate crisis , air pollution that kills “, explained David Belliard, also defending the “need to change our ways of getting around” in a city “extremely dense, concrete like Paris”.
At the same time, David Belliard promised to “work with managers and social landlords to develop underground parking”, 1000 additional parking spaces for people with reduced mobility, as much for professionals and as many for carsharing vehicles … as many spaces “sanctuary” which make him say that “the idea is not to remove all cars”.
Thus, the price list will remain the same for beneficiaries of the resident card, and the price advantages for professionals will be extended to those in the outer suburbs, he argued.
“The idea is effectively to reduce the place of the car and that is a very clear campaign commitment: we are doing what we were elected to do”, he summed up before presenting his plan in early July to the Paris Council.
Changes not to everyone’s taste
Contacted by AFP, the right-wing opposition sees red. “We are not in a search to reduce the space of the car, we are not in the search for the elimination of the car”, reacted Aurélien Véron (LR). The elected of Paris Center has the impression that Anne Hidalgo wants “fill the city’s coffers by fetching money from the pockets of car drivers” and to make traffic by car “a luxury product”.
“They refused the toll but in fact it is a form of toll with an additional gas plant side”, says Aurélien Véron, for whom a negative message is sent: “we want to cut Paris off from the suburbs”.
And anticipate “digital revolts”, like the #saccageParis which protested against cleanliness and certain urban developments, on the part of the alleged losers of the reform: “artisans who refuse construction sites, families who can no longer welcome friends because access is too expensive, theaters which will lose customers who came in the evening …”.
For Anne Hidalgo, a possible PS candidate for the presidential election, this issue is, like the limited traffic zone (ZTL) announced for 2022 in the center of the capital, one more opportunity to show its political will to promote capital a city “less polluted, more ecological, more peaceful and safer”. (with AFP)
