Central Paris begins banning auto traffic

Drivers going through areas around many of the most famous landmarks in the French capital Paris are now subject to traffic restrictions, ahead of a full-scale ban being introduced early next year.

What is being called a limited traffic zone, or ZTL, affects an area of 5.5 square kilometers in the first, second, third, and fourth arrondissements, which are home to around 100,00 people and 11,000 businesses.

Vehicular access will be limited to local residents and workers, emergency services, taxis, public transport, people with reduced mobility, and so-called destination traffic, which is vehicles entering the ZTL for a specific reason, because it is estimated that half of the traffic in the area is passing through on the way to somewhere else.

The ZTL is part of efforts by Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, to cure congestion problems in the city, which this year hosted the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, and to make Paris a more pedestrian- and cycle-friendly place.

A Paris City Hall promotional video said the ZTL, which covers an area that includes the Louvre art museum and Tuileries gardens, will "lower traffic to be able to reshape mobility and mobility public space in favor of pedestrians, public transport and bicycles".

There will be a six-month so-called educational period, during which drivers will receive warnings for breaking the rules, before financial penalties are imposed, following in the path of similar restrictions that exist in the French city of Nantes and several cities in Italy.

The new traffic measures are the latest in a series of initiatives by Hidalgo during her decade in office to make Paris less auto-centric.

Other initiatives include lowering the speed limit on the orbital Peripherique motorway, banning the sale of diesel at four fuel stations that previously supplied half of the city's diesel sales, introducing additional cycle lanes, and the pedestrianization of a popular shopping district.

Ariel Weil, mayor of the city center part of Paris, commented: "The ZTL is an important new step that will be gradually implemented starting with the educational phase.

"Its effects will combine with those of the traffic plan, with the dual aim of reducing traffic and making it more fluid."

Although the Paris changes are not motivated by the same health concerns as London's UItra-Low Emission Zone, it is hoped that a by-product of reduced vehicular numbers will be an improvement in the quality of the city's air.