Paris Calm may not really return to the capital this summer: the French lobby association “40 million drivers” is working on a campaign, and Anne Hidalgo’s great rival Valérie Pécresse is also in attack mode. The president of the Ile-de-France region wants to prevent the new project of the Paris mayor at all costs.
Hidalgo plans to remove a symbol of the Paris juggernaut that has solidified to asphalt. It is about the terror of foreign motorists – the Boulevard Périphérique. According to the will of the mayor, the notorious ring road is to be completely redesigned by 2030. She says: “I want to turn the concrete belt into a green belt.”
The project is about more than just eliminating the most congested route in Europe for the socialist Hidalgo. She is concerned with the future of the city itself, with freeing the eleven million juggernaut from the curse of private transport.
A year before the 50th anniversary of the route, Hidalgo is preparing the people of the twelve million metropolitan area for a superlative construction site. In the future, 70,000 trees will line the 35-kilometer stretch that separates Paris from the sprawling suburbs. Tracks should disappear, as should the large flow of traffic.
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However, the reality is still a long way from this. Every day, 800,000 vehicles make their way along the 35-kilometre-long ring road, where there are usually four lanes in each direction.
Average speed: 35 kilometers per hour. “Our first goal is to reduce the route to a total of three lanes in each direction,” explains Hidalgo’s deputy, the Greens transport politician David Belliard.
Congested route: Chaos on eight lanes
It is the so-called “Olympic track” that should point the way to the future. It will be set up for the Olympic Games in 2024 so that athletes, officials, police and emergency doctors can move through the metropolitan area without congestion.
The mayor of Paris wants to curb traffic in the metropolis.
(Photo: IMAGO/PanoramaC)
After the end of the major event, the lane should remain reserved for buses, taxis and cars with several occupants. Because Hidalgo finds one fact particularly unacceptable: In 80 percent of the cars that clog the Périphérique every day, only one person is sitting.
But that’s just the beginning: another of the four lanes is to be closed to traffic and greened over the next few years. This leaves only two lanes for normal traffic. In return, Hidalgo wants to expand the public transport system.
Resistance comes from Valérie Pécresse. The conservative president of the Ile-de-France region had already called for extensive studies on the greening project in 2021. Then she organized an online survey in which 90 percent opposed the narrowing of the ring road. Pécresse’s voters in the Paris suburbs need the route, the well-heeled residents of the city center less. 40 percent of journeys are from banlieue to banlieue – and 80 percent of users are not from Paris.
The French capital has high levels of smog. This is almost entirely due to traffic.
(Photo: AFP)
Pécresse fears that traffic will shift to the suburbs and that there will be even more traffic jams there in the future. Many banlieue residents criticize that it is a “selfish project”. It relieves the already privileged city dwellers and burdens the socially disadvantaged residents of the suburbs.
>> Read also: Right of way for bicycles: In the corona crisis, metropolises rely on new traffic concepts
In any case, the mayor of Paris cannot decide alone about the future of the important traffic axis. Despite being an urban route, Hidalgo has yet to get the project approved by the French government.
The police prefecture of Paris explained that so far only the Olympic track has been approved. Negotiations on the future perspectives of the megacity Paris are to begin in autumn with state representatives, representatives of the region, drivers and business owners.
Megacity Paris: Negotiations about the future in autumn
Hidalgo will be able to name an important argument. So far, many have taken the car because commuting between the suburbs and Paris is often complicated. However, the public transport network around Paris has been expanded for years, and in the next few years many connections will open up between Paris and the suburbs and from banlieue to banlieue. Grand Paris is the name of the project that was created in 2008, inspired by the greater London area. Then the suburban residents could also leave their cars at home.
The Paris Ringstrasse is the most congested road in Europe.
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Among the skeptics is David Alphand, vice-president of the Changer Paris group (Republicans and Independents) and a member of the Paris Finance Commission. He considers Hidalgo’s plans to be unaffordable.
A kilometer of tram alone costs several tens of millions of euros, a partial roofing of the Périph several hundred million euros. Alphand estimates that Paris will have debts of ten billion euros this year.
Hidalgo still wants to advance her vision of a green city. Since taking over the city hall of the French capital eight years ago, her plans have created an image for herself as an avant-garde in transport policy.
Diesel ban: Just in time for the 2024 Olympics
A ban on diesel vehicles in the city center is to come into force in time for the 2024 Olympic Games, and a large area of the city will also become a traffic-calmed zone. Tempo 30 has been in effect almost throughout the city for a year now.
Hidalgo soon wants to tame the largely irregular traffic merry-go-round around the Arc de Triomphe, the second major fear zone for foreign motorists next to the Boulevard Périphérique.
At first she even thought of a pedestrian zone around the triumphal arch – but removing this ritual mess would probably scratch too much at the identity of the metropolis.
More: In Paris, the speed limit is now 30 on most streets