Just take off the gas: From Monday, Paris will largely become a 30 km / h zone. The capital justifies the move to have fewer accidents, less noise and more space for cyclists.
Paris – For Paris it is a further step towards a traffic turnaround and a city life in which the car no longer dominates everywhere.
Large parts of the French capital will become a 30 km / h zone from this Monday, the city motorway and important traffic axes will remain excluded. 59 percent of Parisians would have agreed to a speed limit in a survey, the city administration justified the move. 25 percent fewer accidents, twice less noise and more space, especially for cyclists, are the arguments in favor of the cut. On 60 percent of the streets the speed limit was 30 anyway, it was said.
The new speed limit is just one of a number of measures to contain the car avalanches in Paris, which a visitor immediately catches the eye. Many roads are currently being built – not to create additional lanes for cars, but for cyclists. 52 kilometers of pop-up cycle paths, which were separated from the car lanes with concrete blocks during the corona pandemic, so-called “Coronapistes”, are currently being converted into permanent cycle lanes. Since the lockdown, the Parisians have made seven percent of their journeys by bike, before the pandemic it was five, the city said.
More space for bicycle parking
In other streets the cars have to give way completely to pedestrians, public meeting areas and bicycle parking spaces are created and trees and gardens are planted. All of this fits into a plan presented in 2018, which promised the metropolis to take a deep breath with more urban greenery, 1000 kilometers of cycle paths and new tram lines. The engine behind a lot is Mayor Anne Hildago, who declared war on cars and air pollution. If the air is poor, traffic is restricted, and pollutant stickers for cars are compulsory. Some streets are closed to traffic – for example the right bank of the Seine – instead a promenade has been created there.
However, the speed limit in Paris does not remain without criticism: In the survey, residents of the greater Paris area were also asked who cannot all get to their destination immediately by metro. 61 percent of them spoke out against the measure. And the association of motorists “40 millions d’automobilistes” doubts the purpose of the measure. In any case, there are few accidents within Paris, and when they do, it is mostly cyclists who are affected, said association delegate Pierre Chasseray of the newspaper “Le Figaro”. And the traffic noise is caused by the car tires and not the engines, less speed hardly helps.
Resistance threatens also with further already announced measures in Paris. From the beginning of next year, for the first time, motorcycles and the scooters popular in the metropolis will also pay parking fees, with the exception of e-motorcycles. And plans to turn many streets into pedestrian zones in the heart of Paris are pissing merchants and residents alike. The plans are now likely to be postponed until 2023, wrote the newspaper “Le Parisien” recently.
Lille and Grenoble are already slowing down the pace
Incidentally, hundreds of new Tempo 30 signs did not have to be screwed to every street corner in Paris for the new speed limit. On the access roads into the city, the new, large-scale regulation is pointed out once, that was sufficient, said the then Interior Minister in 2019. Paris in France is not a pioneer with the city-wide speed limit: the cities of Lille and Grenoble had already lowered their speed. The bicycle club ADFC sees the French capital as a model for similar regulations in Germany.
“Tempo 30 relaxes life in cities, it makes them safer, more climate-friendly and quieter,” said ADFC Federal Managing Director Ann-Kathrin Schneider. “As in Paris and other European metropolises, it should also be possible in German cities to introduce Tempo 30 as the standard speed in urban areas.” Tempo 50 could then be maintained on main traffic axes, for example, where there are already wide cycle paths. “Paris will flourish at 30 km / h, and German cities should too.” Dpa
