Paris goes car-free this Sunday

Elena Berton | Special for USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Paris streets go car-free for the day Partly rooted in symbolism, party in necessity, Paris' mayor banned most cars from driving in large parts of the city on Sunday. Video provided by Newsy

PARIS — For once, Parisians won’t have to escape to the countryside during the weekend to get a breath of fresh air.

On Sunday, Paris institutes its first car-free day, banning most vehicles from the central part of the city and allowing people to stroll, cycle or skate from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Bastille.

Landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Élysées, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Left Bank will be free from car noise and exhaust fumes between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. this Sunday.

“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.

The closure is unprecedented for the French capital and opens the entire city center to pedestrians only for one day, expanding on popular areas already off-limits to Sunday traffic like the fashionable Marais, the cobblestoned Montmartre and the hip neighborhood along Canal Saint-Martin.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic that normally clogs the city’s boulevards will be replaced by street parties, yoga classes, markets with fresh produce and — this being Paris — food tastings with top chefs.

Exceptions are being allowed for buses, taxis, garbage trucks and emergency vehicles. Elsewhere in the capital, cars and trucks will be forced to slow down to a plodding 12 mph.

The plan has received an enthusiastic thumbs up from ordinary Parisians, as well as unlikely parties like the head of the French drivers’ association called 40 millions d'automobilistes.

“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.

Paris’ motor-free day is by no means a world’s first. Brussels, the traffic congestion capital of Europe, launched its first car-free Sunday 15 years ago, an example followed by Montreal, Jakarta and other cities.

But Paris' decision to keep cars off its pollution-choked streets for a day is no coincidence. In November, the city will host the United Nations’ World Climate Conference, when political and environmental leaders will converge to discuss global warming issues.

The move also follows a severe pollution spike in March, when Parisians woke up to discover the Eiffel Tower enveloped in smog.

The sight of Paris shrouded in a brown haze prompted city officials to impose emergency measures — such as a partial driving ban and free public transportation — for the second time in a year, as pollution levels in the French capital briefly topped those of Shanghai, one of the world’s most smog-plagued cities.

Still, Parisians have proved reluctant to give up their addiction to cars, despite increasingly clogged thoroughfares and an electric car-sharing program that was launched four years ago.

The capital is France's most congested city, where drivers spend 45 hours every year sitting in traffic, according to road traffic data provider Inrix.

As elsewhere in France, pollution is made worse by the prevalence of diesel vehicles, which successive governments have promoted by subsidizing the fuel and making it 15% cheaper than gasoline. Although diesel engines produce lower carbon emissions, they still emit a large amount of the tiny particles that threaten human health.

Kim Le Minh, 37, a career services coordinator who lives in Paris’ southwestern 15th arrondissement, welcomes the car-free initiative but doubts that drivers will switch to more environmentally friendly transportation.

“I see (the car-free day) as a communication campaign to make people reflect in general about the environment and pollution," she said. "But I doubt they will be persuaded to use their car less. I don’t think they will change their habits in the short term.”