This Sunday, the city of Paris will institute a car-free policy between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., reports usatoday.com. The article doesn’t specify how a car-free day will apply to parking, but I am guessing there a few ramifications. It makes sense to assume no driving means no parking, but I am curious about how they will address cars already parked. The article states that residents will be able to walk the streets safely from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Bastille. I admit this is a sight I’d like to see for myself.
“Parisians will be able to take back their daily living space and experience the city in a different way,” said Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who would have liked to make the entire city off-limits to vehicles on Sunday.
Even the president of the French drivers’ association was on board.
“I rarely agree with the mayor of Paris, but this time I am on her side. Closing off a few streets on a Sunday once a year is not a bad idea. It’s a symbolic gesture that allows people to rediscover certain streets,” the group’s president Pierre Chasseray said.
Although the novelty of the experience was part of the inspiration behind the vehicle ban, recent increases in pollution around the city had an influence. According to usatoday.com, the Eiffel Tower was hidden by smog earlier this year and officials began to discuss serious measures to decrease pollution including a partial driving ban and free public transportation. Again, the ramifications for parking are not mentioned in the article, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
Read the rest of the article here.
