Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/21/travel/paris-transformation-anne-hidalgo-mayor

by heresie-dabord • 4 months ago

257 317 4 months ago

cnn.com

hshdhdhj4444• 4 months ago

This article has such a weird framing.

It keeps repeating how the cleaner air is so good for tourists.

But tourists visiting Paris for a week don’t get the majority of the benefit from cleaner air.

The Parisian residents living there throughout the year do.

Maybe because it’s CNN, an American outlet, they’re focused on the “tourist”, but these benefits have mostly accrued to Parisians.

Also, the 4% increase in traffic jams is minuscule when compared to other large cities across the world (outside of maybe NYC, since it implemented congestion pricing over that period). Paris has not escaped the wrath of the SUV, and a large part of the congestion cities across the world are seeing is solely down to cars becoming bigger.

frnx• 4 months ago

The new large cycling strips that appeared in the last 5-6 years are so good. At commute time there are frequently jammed with /cyclists/, but let's face it it's miles better than being stuck in a car. I shudder to think about the alternative where each cyclist was instead alone in a small car, this wouldn't even fit on the roads.

suddenlybananas• 4 months ago

I do wonder how many cyclists in Paris are really replacing cars versus replacing metro usage. Obviously, it's still good for people to cycle as well since the metro can be insanely crowded at times, but living in Paris, my impression is that the people who cycle are the kinds who would have been unlikely to own a car in any case.

philamonster• 4 months ago

I would love to be on what amounts to a group ride to and from work safely. That has to do wonders for all kinds of things both physical and mental. If it were safe I would do it year round.

jfengel2• 4 months ago

On a nice day it's fantastic to be out, but Paris can be cold and rainy. They really need to have a plan for those days, too.

Paris Metro is pretty nice, and reaches most of the car free area. But I'm not sure if it can handle all of the cyclists if they're all trying to avoid a déluge.

consp2• 4 months ago

You haven't been in a bicycle-jam until you've been before an open bridge just before the university colleges start in the Netherlands. Hundreds of cyclists trying to squeeze through a tiny bottleneck. Still costs less time than by going in a car.

drnick12• 4 months ago

At commute time there are frequently jammed with /cyclists/, but let's face it it's miles better than being stuck in a car.

Cycling is wonderful, except when it rains, when it's cold, when it's hot, when it's windy, or when you want to carry stuff. So it's not a practical solution 80% of the year.

throw-the-towel• 4 months ago

Well IDK, as a pedestrian in Paris I hate cyclists way more than I hate cars. Cycling in the Netherlands is wonderful; here, it might well have been a mistake.

jay_kyburz2• 4 months ago

I don't love the waist high black poles that separate the roads from the cycle lanes on some roads. They are not visible enough.

When we were there a few years ago we saw a young woman on a bike slam into one on her morning commute.

I nearly nutted myself a few time too.

iamkonstantin• 4 months ago

I think it’s no easy task to reform a city away from being car-centric. In my home town of Ghent (in Belgium), we’ve had several iterations of a traffic plan that gradually reduces the number of parking spaces, rises taxes and car related costs, makes streets one way or deprioritises cars (e.g. a car doesn’t have priority over a bike anymore) etc. It’s not easy but the city today is a lot more liveable than it was when all this started.

skeletal88• 4 months ago

But then public transport has to improve also. You cant make owning a car impossible without offering alternatives.

jstummbillig• 4 months ago

Honest question: What is the hard part? If you took all of that stuff and did it as quickly as you could somewhere else, what's would be the biggest issue? People + resistance to change of any kind?

The outcome seems so obviously good. I have never heard of anyone complaining about a city becoming less car centric, but maybe somehow it's an under-represented story?

jfengel2• 4 months ago

It's a good illustration of why solving climate change isn't just a matter of individual actions. We need to reconsider the whole infrastructure, and you can't do that from the bottom up.

Gud• 4 months ago

The cities were recently reformed to be car-centric(1960s) and can be easily reverted.

All it takes is an understanding how fucked up it is to operate a 2 tonne personal vehicle everywhere you go(if you are able, which most people aren't, legally or mentally), spread the general knowledge and make a long term commitment to public transport, walking and bicycling.

:-)

stingraycharles• 4 months ago

But tourists visiting Paris for a week don’t get the majority of the benefit from cleaner air.

You’re missing the point: tourists are good for the city. If Paris gets a reputation of being polluted, tourism will decline.

zamadatix• 4 months ago

Paris is consistently somewhere in the top 10 cities worldwide by number of tourists per year and this is an extremely important factor to the city. Even if if Le Monde was writing this in French the impacts to/from tourism would be relevant to the article.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

Travelers are more sensitive to sudden changes. I got sick in Sicily on day one of my vacation because of how bad the air was.

dismalaf2• 4 months ago

Paris has not escaped the wrath of the SUV, and a large part of the congestion cities across the world are seeing is solely down to cars becoming bigger.

Europeans don't drive Suburbans. They drive crossovers that are, if anything, shorter than the equivalent sedan or wagon.

seanmcdirmid• 4 months ago

So do Americans in many cites like Seattle.

bluesounddirect• 4 months ago

I agree, CNN has always had a weird angle to its bias. I am by no means a FOX news nut . I really think a lot of american "news" now is similar to How The WWF ( World Wide Wrestling Federation/ World Wrestling Entertainment) isn't a Sport. CNN , FOX, MSNBC/MSNOW , Newsmax etc aren't news but unfunny entertainment.

dwg465• 4 months ago

I mean it’s a “CNN Travel” article…of course it’s going to focus on Paris as a travel destination.

dfxm12• 4 months ago

Cleaner air is still good for tourists & the article is part of the Travel section of this publication.

zahlman4• 4 months ago

When did the fad for compact cars end? Where did all these SUVs come from? Why do drivers want to lug all this extra weight and space around with them all the time?

yulker2• 4 months ago

the default car should have been a one person car. we split a normal one lane into two narrow lanes.

pas• 4 months ago

in the US it has a few factors, one is that trucks are exempted from some mileage requirements, so suddenly manufacturers started making "legally truck" cars

gostsamo2• 4 months ago

The way I've heard it from drivers, suvs gives you elevation to observe the traffic and the mass to make your bad behavior problem of the other side while you gain real numbers safety.

II2II• 4 months ago

Things I noticed right off the bat: framing it as a tourist verses locals issue, a complete lack of numbers backing that claim, and the few numbers presented in the article have any context. I realize this is a travel article, but it seems to be more of a propaganda piece.

Take the claim that the locals hate the changes. Well, the mayor was reelected. So they claim the voter turnout was low and people were complaining, so people obviously don't support it. Sorry, you can't make that conclusion. Under ordinary circumstances, 100% turnout would only tell you the overall support for a particular candidate or party, not a particular policy. A low turnout may reflect an electorate who is not particularly passionate in any of the issues presented in the election, or it may mean something else. It was probably something else in the 2020 elections because those were anything but ordinary: they fell during the peak of pandemic uncertainty (i.e. March to June). So a flimsy assertion based upon flimsy evidence.

Then there are the scanty numbers without context. A 4% increase in traffic jams since 2015 and 31% decline in bus use between 2018 and 2024. First of all, the words "bus use" sounds highly selective. It looks like the Paris metro has been expanding and modernizing rapidly in recent years, which would both take load off of busses and be disruptive to transit users. Oh, and that pandemic thing raises its head again. I don't know about Paris, but a lot of cities took a hit to transit ridership during the pandemic and some are claiming to reach pre-pandemic levels only now. Also, cyclists tend to be the whipping boy for traffic congestion. I can't speak for Paris, but the reality in my parts are that population growth and a surge in construction have been far more disruptive than cycling infrastructure.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick and tired of the views of one segment of the population completely overriding the views of another segment of the population ... especially when there are assertions based upon assumptions and flimsy evidence.

stackghost• 4 months ago

But tourists visiting Paris for a week don’t get the majority of the benefit from cleaner air.

First impressions matter, though.

When you fly into e.g. New York and they pop the door open you get that whiff of exhaust fumes. The city reeks.

Vancouver on the other hand it smells like the ocean.

Any improvement of air quality does matter for tourists and residents.

0xf8• 4 months ago

Agreed the tourist POV center focus is bizarre AF. it’s almost like they were afraid to ask Parisians or even other French natives regularly frequenting Paris what they thought and so they just went with tourists are happy…

bluGill5• 4 months ago

Tourists get the majority of the benefit because residents of paris are smoking which is makes clear air not really a benifiet for them.

I thought the above needed a /s, but a check shows 30% of the people in France smoke. (I can't find city stastics)

stefs3• 4 months ago

i kinda seem to remember that this is a bit misleading and the rates are surprisingly different than expected. i'm too lazy to check the sources right now, but gemini gives me a 15% daily smoker rate for paris, while it's ~30% for detroit, 21% for philadelphia, 10% for new york, 5% for L.A.

fsckboy• 4 months ago

This article has such a weird framing. It keeps repeating how the cleaner air is so good for tourists.

it's not a weird framing, it's a clearly marked travel piece on "CNN Travel"

the French don't read that, they read French newspapers etc.

delichon4• 4 months ago

In an American city I would bet on the mobility impaired people to win the cage match against the fewer cars people. They are tougher than they look.

Edit: The responses reasonably talk about the officially mobility impaired people. I was thinking more about the unofficially mobility impaired people by obesity, like me. French obesity rates are ~16% compared to ~42% in the US. That contributes to a fierce US constituency for cars.

ceejayoz• 4 months ago

Huh? Fewer cars seems like a win to those who really rely on them. Could probably wind up with more accessible spots if done right.

kevinklaes• 4 months ago

Fewer cars overall should increase the availability for those who need it. Same for drivers overall but most can’t see past the first step which is reducing lanes and parking.

wiether2• 4 months ago

A city with less cars is a net positive for mobility impaired people.

It frees space for people (wider sidewalks...), reduce the risks of navigating the streets, and for the ones that have to use a car, there's less traffic and less people stealing dedicated parking spots.

Less cars also means less mobility impaired people. Cars create them through crashes and a lifetime of sedentariness.

Finally, it should be noted that most of the time when someone says "what about mobility impaired people?", when debating reallocating public space to people instead of cars, they are not mobility impaired themselves and don't actually care about them. They just try to guilt shame their opponents to win.

dmix2• 4 months ago

and for the ones that have to use a car, there's less traffic and less people stealing dedicated parking spots.

The article mentions there's now constant traffic jams for city buses in Paris. It seems best for people who can cycle, walk, or people who already live in the city and don't need to travel much.

delichon4• 4 months ago

they are not mobility impaired themselves and don't actually care about them.

That's a baseless and false slur. My first thought was that visiting Paris would be difficult because of all of the walking. I fall in the large gap between disabled and fit. On the one hand I would benefit from more walking, on the other I would not get much enjoyment out of a city that way, and would tend to drive far to services where I could park nearby.

Fricken• 4 months ago

My buddy with no arms or legs would beg to differ. He can't afford taxis because he can't work a real job. His friends/family can't drive him around because you need a custom vehicle for his chair. But he can use bike lanes and sidewalks independently without too muuch trouble.

Car-dependent sprawl creates mobility impaired people where there were previously none. Many people are too old, too young, too intoxicated, too vision impaired or too poor to drive. Lack of viable transportation options is the greatest barrier to upward economic mobility for Americans today.

tantivy2• 4 months ago

Cars are enclosed sofas that move around. Could car dominance be contributing to obesity?

alamortsubite10• 4 months ago

I think you're selling cars short. For one thing, sofas don't have a plethora of cupholders that can accommodate any size sugary beverage within arm's reach.

rsynnott10• 4 months ago

I was thinking more about the unofficially mobility impaired people by obesity, like me

The vast majority of obese people are not meaningfully mobility impaired.

delichon4• 4 months ago

As an obese person I disagree. Even 40 pounds is a meaningful mobility impairment, a difference between a joy and a trudge. I've experienced 200 pounds, and it is a kind of prison. Even a little bit of that prison is deeply meaningful. Have you not experienced it? I think I did more intensely as a yo-yo dieter. I knew what it was like to be fit from recent memory when I wasn't fit, and hated the difference.

dahart• 4 months ago

I would bet on the mobility impaired people to win the cage match

Why frame it as a fight? There’s no need to start there; you don’t need to waste time fighting against people not in your group. You just need to establish group status. If the constituency of obese people is strong, why not seek to establish policy on behalf of obese people and not everyone? As the article and others here have said, reducing traffic congestion benefits everyone in multiple ways, including benefits for the people who still have to drive. Given a choice that doesn’t affect your ability to drive, I assume you’d rather have less pollution, less noise, and fewer other drivers on the road?

The other angle missing from your comment is e-bikes. Most of those ~42% of obese people in the U.S. are still capable of riding an e-bike, and for short trips in busy areas, e-bikes are more convenient and easier to park than cars.

consumer4517• 4 months ago

Complete tangent, but I met my equally nerdy brother in Paris last month.

It was my first time, and his fourth. We stayed South of the Republique metro station.

After the literal 30th indie Manga [0] shop that we walked by, I asked him: "how are all these shops financially viable?" He said: "look inside."

Holy crap, they all had customers inside! I had no idea that Japanese culture has such a strong presence in the heart of Paris, in the middle of Europe.

[0] I should be clear, this was not just Manga. There were so many cool indie retro video game shops that it blew my little mind. I should probably get out of my Silesian village more often.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

Pedestrianization of neighborhoods like Rivoli did decrease shopping at first, but ended up exploding again once people got used to it.

consumer4517• 4 months ago

I have to say, I look forward to visiting Paris again as soon as I can find an excuse. I know there are things people could say negatively, as one could say about any large city, but the energy and diversity really drew me in.

I also really like French food, especially when mixed with the crazy chefs in that area that we stayed.

Edit: just so everyone knows, this is what an airport terminal could be, according to Air France: https://postimg.cc/ZCww5xFs - So cool that I had to take photo.

This was the least customer-hostile area that I have ever seen at an airport. Oh, you have to wait for a flight? Just lay back and chill.

Palomides• 4 months ago

france has a really strong tradition of comics, it's not just manga

alamortsubite10• 4 months ago

I learned about la nouvelle manga recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_nouvelle_manga

bombcar5• 4 months ago

It’s not just France; most of Europe. Barks and Don Rosa are better known there than in their home country.

b0rtb0rt• 4 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme

consumer4517• 4 months ago

Cool! Thank you for this information! Very interesting.

Kankuro• 4 months ago

France is the 2nd largest market for manga after Japan (or it was a few years ago). That's surprising because there are almost 7 times more inhabitants in the US. Those who were a kid in the 80s and 90s in France saw a lot of Japanese anime on TV during this period, so that's part of the explanation.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

I moved from LA to Paris, my mental and physical health improved dramatically.

I don't even take the subway, walking and biking are enough where I live. Hopefully we can reach the comfort of dutch cities within a decade.

vovavili• 4 months ago

I was more comfortable living in Paris than living in a Dutch city because I was able to live in a banlieue. Biking here is more developed, and that's a plus. But having my job, my living space, my friends and my favorite weekend activities spread across Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague does take a bit of a toll. I wish The Netherlands did have a much less restrictive housing policy.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

Interesting ! My comparison was indeed limited, I only lived in center of Den Haag as a foreigner. Decentralization has its pros and cons, but Paris is way too centralized around Chatelet sometimes.

mrtksn2• 4 months ago

What do you think about all those videos on how dangerous Paris is? Having made the move, would you say that those stem from real experiences and are organic or would you say that it was an organized campaign for some political reason? Or maybe something else?

Trump keeps saying that they want to prevent USA becoming a dangerous place like Europe, even said that recently and the Irish president disagreed with him. As an American, would you say that EU has fallen and it has become a shithole or maybe something in between? I'm just curious if its just about differences of expectations or something.

rkomorn• 4 months ago

As a European who moved to the US for 20+ years then moved back to Europe, any idea that Europe is a shithole or has fallen is ludicrous.

If anything, the US degraded far more over the time I spent there than Europe did while I was away.

kjkjadksj2• 4 months ago

Trump and his base think that. The rest of us know we are 40 years behind the rest of the modern world.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

I don't have anecdata, but Paris homicide rate is 6x less than LA, 10x fewer car related deaths, but only 1.2x less crime.

Comparing countries and policies is a great thing, we have to learn from each other. Just be careful of misinformation and out of context numbers. Sure France's GDP seems lower, but they don't need a larger car and a larger diet coke to be happier.

StyloBill4• 4 months ago

The idea that Paris is more dangerous than any big city in the US is laughable, and any person that thinks otherwise or that believes anything that Trump spouts is either gravely uneducated at best, or an absolute moron at worst.

UncleMeat• 4 months ago

Videos about how dangerous some city is, often to scare people about nonwhite residents, is a longstanding and utterly useless genre.

Better to get crime information from anything else.

KaiserPro3• 4 months ago

What do you think about all those videos on how dangerous Paris is?

The question to ask is why those videos are being made.

Paris, as other people have pointed out, has a much lower homicide rate than big US cities.

However for pickpocketing, paris is notorious. But getting actual stats that are comparable is difficult.

jancsika• 4 months ago

As an American, would you say that EU has fallen and it has become a shithole or maybe something in between?

Would love to know the social media you've been consuming that could make you believe that an American in Paris who is praising French city planning for its positive health effects could possibly believe anything close to that epithet uttered by the current American president.

watwut2• 4 months ago

EU is overall safer then USA. Including Paris.

And cops are significantly less likely to shoot you. You dont have to be afraid of them.

anvuong2• 4 months ago

I have visited Seattle, SF, LA, Phoenix, Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, and Amsterdam in the past 2 years, and I can say with 100% confident that the cities in the US are shit compared to those in Asia and EU. They are not even close, they are just simply shit, there is no comparison at all. I have no idea what the statistics is, but I feel much less safe in US cities.

pkulak2• 4 months ago

How's your French? Sounds like a flippant question, but I hear Parisians are not that... tolerant of even bad French speakers, let alone non-speakers. That stereotype has kept me from visiting, let alone living there, despite it probably being my dream city in every other respect. I'm in my mid 40s, and learning a new (spoken) language has become extremely difficult. I spent 2 years trying to learn German a while back and it was a pretty big failure.

yardie• 4 months ago

If you can you should go. Lived there for 12 years and my French was not amazing but no one gave me shit about it. English has been required in schools since 00s basically anyone under 40 should be able to communicate. But knowing some French goes a lot further.

estimator7292• 4 months ago

Paris has a population of 2 million people, a good chunk of whom are not native to France.

It's safe to assume you'll encounter a very wide variety of people speaking many different languages.

interstice• 4 months ago

I've had a few experiences in France, as recently as a month ago. Not speaking French (I do not) is not generally a problem, no one seems to mind. What some parts of Europe do mind is being too... How do I put this politely... Obviously from certain places with very little sensitivity for where in the the world they happen to be at the time. Often loudly.

ungovernableCat• 4 months ago

Prevented from visiting? Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world, and the Parisians are pragmatic people. If you're kind and respectful they'll give you that in return.

I can only say the most basic phrases in French and have experienced zero problems.

watwut2• 4 months ago

They acted like normal people when we have been there.

Frost1x• 4 months ago

It’s probably more similar to Japan in terms of cultural tolerance. I heard the same story years ago and only recently visited (just after the Paris Olympics). I usually try to learn some of the basics of the language before visiting but was incredibly busy and didn’t this trip. I had no issues and I was all over Paris. People were very reasonable, and translation apps/services helped me plenty, but for the most part they spoke English or could understand some basic level of it. If you live there and try to assimilate but speak poorly or little, there may be less tolerance? As a tourist I had not a single incident.

I don’t like to be the ugly American who just assumes the world should speak my language, so I was ready for language barriers, but I had no real issues at all.

shakow2• 4 months ago

As a Frenchman living in Paris – we have such a huge expat community already (and many english-speakers, I worked with Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Canadians) than one more or less will be a non-event.

Now it's true that Americans tend to love to frighten each other with firecamp stories about the Big Bad Frenchman, but IME it's mostly a mix of latent francophobia and a grapevine of bad experience between what is locally perceived as wholly uneducated Americans and local Frenchmen that the Americans tend to see as arrogant.

The latest if most often due to (i) tourists forgetting that what is a great week you spent years saving for is another Tuesday for the other guys in the street, (ii) many fundamental French etiquette rules (don't shout, say “hello” first when talking to someone, the absence of a hierarchical relationship between hospitality personnel and customers, distant behaviour is not arrogance but a mark of respect, etc.) are completely accessory in the US customs, leading to very strong misunderstandings.

So book a trip for a week and come say hello, we don't bite! (and avoid like the plague any café/restaurant in the touristy areas)

Rebelgecko2• 4 months ago

I went to Paris last year and it was not a big deal, as long as you know the basics like excuse me/please/thank you.

A few times someone would correct us (eg "after 6pm we say bonsoir instead of bonjour"), but it never felt like it was done in a dickish way and people were generally pretty accommodating. Perhaps it helps that I went to Paris with low expectations, not thinking it'd live up to the hype, but I had a great time. Definitely don't let the language thing keep you from going!

teekert• 4 months ago

As a Dutch person having spend many summers in France, I can say that the latest generations are much more tolerant and friendly. When I was young (90’s) I saw camping owners with war grudges screaming “Campsite Full!! (Complet!! In French)” To any German. I also had to walk out of a boulangerie without croissants because they couldn’t understand the way I pronounced croissant… but nowadays you can just speak English anywhere.

anvuong2• 4 months ago

Maybe it's time to stop caring about these stereotypes over-amplified by social media? I'm from Asia and I speak English with a heavy accent, the only French I know is "merci beaucoup", "toilet?", and "au revoir". I've visited Paris twice (1 week each time) and language barrier or the so-called "Parisian elitism" had never prevented me to enjoy my stay there.

That being said, there is still a lot to hate about Paris: dirty and overcrowded subway, shady people everywhere, especially around tourists' places of interest, etc. Not that much different from big cities like NYC, SF, Seattle, etc.

ta9000• 4 months ago

I’ve traveled all over the world and the French were by far the biggest assholes I’ve encountered, especially in hospitality.

laughing_man• 4 months ago

When I visited Paris a few years back I found the key was greeting people in French. Maybe spend a couple hours learning how to say hello, how to say "excuse me" and "thank you", how to ask where the nearest toilet is, how to ask for the cheque, etc.

If people see you making the effort, they'll switch to English, in my case, anyway. But you have to show some respect, first. You have to let people know you understand you're a guest in their country.

Of course, this was many years ago. Things may be different now. And of course, if you're going to live there you're going to have to learn the language as quickly as you can.

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

I'm french, but I have a dozen of friends here that don't speak English and have an active social circle. In some streets of Le Marais you can hear more English than french

rayiner2• 4 months ago

How many kids do you have? How comfortable is the downtown core for families with 2-3 kids?

goldenarm7• 4 months ago

I don't have kids yet, but some arrondissements are very family friendly, some are not

dddw• 4 months ago

Enough playgrounds last time I visited.

Nevermark• 4 months ago

Several years ago, I moved to twin university towns, where I can walk everywhere including between towns.

Funny thing about distances in small towns. It doesn't take long to start perceiving a ten or fifteen minute drive as a "long" drive. But a two hour walk while I turn over a difficult design problem goes by in an instant.

The difference between time that saps or renews our energy.

And I am off for a walk...

tom-blk• 4 months ago

Only rich people get to drive now

throwawaytea2• 4 months ago

I go to Berkeley Ca often on weekends. As a kid we'd go to SF too because why not. But now it's another $8+ for the bridge, and even if you find street parking it's another $2 an hour anywhere you might want to jump out for a few minutes. Basically it's an extra $20 to get the opportunity to spend your money in SF. So now I haven't been to my favorite coffee shop or pizza place in years. Oh well.

NoraCodes2• 4 months ago

Why not take the train...?

dpark3• 4 months ago

This is a tired and unhelpful refrain. Only rich people fill their cars with gasoline without wincing at the price. Only rich people get to own 7 houses. Only rich people get to fill their pools in the middle of a drought.

There are a lot of things that “only rich people get to do”. Reducing the number of people who engage in destructive activities is a good thing, even if it means only rich people can still do it.

Y-bar• 4 months ago

An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport.

- Enrique Peñalosa Londoño

rossant• 4 months ago

I've lived in Paris for 20 years without even having the driver's license.

bombcar5• 4 months ago

But are you le riche?

saltysalt10• 4 months ago

Correct. Rich people can easily afford the congestion charges and higher parking fees. These policies impact working class people more.

tonyedgecombe• 4 months ago

Were the working class driving SUV's into Paris before the changes?

dopidopHN22• 4 months ago

No. Rich people zoom in to work and take a stroll to the market on Saturday morning, and they enjoy tapas a the quaint Bistro on the bank of the seine.

Driving is for plebes

dpark3• 4 months ago

I don’t know how you’re defining “rich” but the wealthiest folks I know all go to work physically. They get in their cars, or in one case on their bike, and commute to work like everyone else.

LaGrange3• 4 months ago

FYI this article and thread is about Paris, France, not Paris, Texas.

tantivy2• 4 months ago

How many working class people would be happier and less stressed if they had high-quality transit to replace their car bills?

aidenn04• 4 months ago

Any time you price in externalities that were formerly not priced in, you take something that everyone could afford to do and make it something only the rich can do.

whatever1• 4 months ago

Of course you can reduce highways and infrastructure and reduce traffic. But you also choked access to the city.

And no public transportation does not fix the problem. It helps a bit, but at the end of the day biggest part of far commuters are gradually cut off.

If decentralization is the target, then just state it.

goda90• 4 months ago

Many cities in the world have many thousands of far commuters arriving by train every day. And many of those people even live in single family homes and own cars.

Zigurd• 4 months ago

choked access to the city

Citation needed.

Pedestrian and cyclist friendly cities have more vibrant street life, and are more attractive places to live. I've never heard of car restrictions leading to more suburbanization.

rsynnott10• 4 months ago

I would assume that if you’re commuting to Paris from far away, the train is generally _quicker_, tbh. AIUI the RER is mostly 140km/h quality lines.

LaGrange3• 4 months ago

"There was a rise in hospitalizations of pedestrians and cyclists"

looks at the reason

CARS.

saltysalt10• 4 months ago

Cyclists hitting pedestrians.

consumer4517• 4 months ago

I used to cosplay as a bike messenger in Seattle. I did not follow the rules at all on my ride to work. There were few bike lanes, and a lot of morons rode on the sidewalks.

I have only been to Paris once, but the cyclists were much more sane in my experience. The bike lanes were clear, and for the most part they stopped at a red light.

chiefalchemist2• 4 months ago

Slightly off-topic but NYC went through a similar process when congestion pricing met legal battle after legal battle. Long to short, there was a calculated effort to make midtown less and less vehicle-friendly. The "hack" was to take streets / aves and repurpose those for pedestrians. Special walking lanes, more "park cafes", bike lanes, etc. None were stated as being anti-vehicle - as that would open up legal challenges - but that was obviously the intention.

cguess2• 4 months ago

And it worked, there's multiple studies showing that retail business in the neighborhoods that limited car accessibility is up while pollution and noise is down and for those who choose to drive into the city, parking is easier.

Shitty-kitty2• 4 months ago

Its been great for those that can afford to live in Manhattan. For us living in the other borrows its been horrible. The honking is now non-stop.

pastel8739• 4 months ago

But in fact the end goal wasn’t to remove vehicles, it was to reduce congestion, emissions, etc. Those things are caused by vehicles, so policies to remove them will affect vehicles, but it’s disingenuous to suggest that their motivation is anti-vehicle.

kjkjadksj2• 4 months ago

It is also anti vehicle. Moving people in nyc at densities of 10ft by 20ft apart from the next human at the best theoretical case is astoundingly stupid.

chiefalchemist2• 4 months ago

No one ever said anything along the lines of EVs are ok, we're just trying to tax the petrol vehicles. The goal was anti-vehicle. They didn't not directly but indirectly. Like it or not, the strategy was legal and political genius.

saltysalt10• 4 months ago

I think Paris has bigger problems to worry about.

rwmj• 4 months ago

I think Paris has bigger problems to worry about.

Say what you mean to say.

dest• 4 months ago

The housing market is a bit broken: either expensive private housing or affordable publicly managed one, but very hard to get. People often cannot relocate. Big debt. Security, with addicted errands in some districts.

saltysalt10• 4 months ago

Just did, it's the worse city in France. A few cycle lanes won't fix it.

rapht• 4 months ago

This article omits so many negatives from the "cyclist's paradise" vision of Hidalgo's 2 terms that I don't know where to start. Families are the first casualties: the Paris metro is nowhere near accessible to strollers except if you are willing to go to the chiropractor after each week end, and using your car - hell, even parking your family car - is a no go as soon as there is some kind of hipster sports event or just as soon as you are after 10am on week end mornings. Local parks and generally streets are so dirty that you have to wash your children from head to toe as soon as they have set foot outside. And I'm not even talking about used seringes and broken glass in certain parts of the city. I'm actually so ashamed of my city at this point.

dadoum• 4 months ago

About the accessibility issue in the Paris metro: this can be mitigated by using the buses (that's not the best experience but it works fine), and in some parts of Paris (in my experience, east and suburbs) people usually quickly help you in the stairs with your stroller (it's not convenient or comfortable to rely on others but in practice it seems to work). Anyway this is not like Paris mayor has any power on that, the transport authority though announced a few years ago that the main priority after the Grand Paris Express will be making the historical Paris network accessible. And fortunately after two years hopefully your kid can walk and you can carry it without a stroller.

Local parks and generally streets are so dirty that you have to wash your children from head to toe as soon as they have set foot outside.

Maybe if it is a newborn, and if you don't bring the stroller nor any clothes, on rainy days it can be that bad. Don't get me wrong, Paris is not a clean city, there are empty nitrogen tanks, puffs and cigarettes lying on the ground pretty much in every arrondissement, but syringes, even on the colline du crack I can hardly remember having seen even one (but it is very dirty there! with packaging, paper, cardboard, bottles).

I still think there should be a higher priority on sanitation but I also think you are exaggerating a bit.

bombcar5• 4 months ago

Stroller access makes the USA look like a paradise compared to an old metro Europe.

A week with a double stroller in Paris will make you appreciate ADA wheelchair ramps, kerb cuts, and elevators.

hamdingers3• 4 months ago

People took their children places for centuries without strollers and cars. The dependance on wheeled conveyances for children is baffling to me, I feel like some parents have an aversion to holding their kids. Especially the ones who clip a carseat into a stroller and never take them out.

We were gifted a big heavy modern stroller and almost never used it, when the kids were babies we wore them and now they can walk a little we just do that and take breaks. If it's going to be an all-day thing (like a theme park) we'll bring a lightweight umbrella style stroller and those are trivial to fold up and carry.

The accessibility argument makes sense for folks with disabilities but not so with children.

mcv5• 4 months ago

Accessibility is always important, regardless of what other options exist.

I loved carrying my kids as babies, and rode them everywhere on my bike, but there will always be people for whom bikes, walking or cars aren't an option, which is why accessible public transport is always important.

thrance5• 4 months ago

Only 30% of Parisians drive in the city. There are real accessibility issues, but cars are probably the worst solution. We could add elevators to more metro stations, or improve bus service, etc. But having a car in the city and parking it is a costly provilege that not many can enjoy. Also cars are super bad for public health, noise pollution and the environment.

Local parks and generally streets are so dirty that you have to wash your children from head to toe as soon as they have set foot outside.

That's an insane hyperbole.

And I'm not even talking about used seringes and broken glass in certain parts of the city.

Not my experience, at all.

oftenwrong• 4 months ago

Surely the school streets are a great benefit for families, yes? That seems as pro-child as public space allocation could be.

mcv5• 4 months ago

No elevators to the metro? That's a problem independent from the cyclist's paradise. A city like Paris should have an accessible metro. Amsterdam has elevators at I think every single metro station (though our metro system is far less extensive than Paris' of course).

Tade0• 4 months ago

“She is constantly criticized, but still reelected: I’ve never understood it,” says Lionel Pradal, a bistro owner on the bustling Rue des Martyrs. “Parisians never go out and vote, and then after they complain. This is the problem with French people, it’s always the same.”

This is somewhat of a public secret, but few people ever stay in Paris for longer than say 10 years and thus aren't that attached to the city. It's noticeable in how few people voted in Hidalgo's referendums.

The city has been losing citizens in favour of its suburbs for close to two decades now (if not much longer really) and this is a trend which shows no clear signs of reversing.

bombcar5• 4 months ago

The US has had cities like that, where it’s a perpetually cycling (in both senses of the term heh) mostly-young group of renters who move out to the suburbs when they get older and start families.

If “done well” neighborhoods preserve their character somewhat because the replacement people are basically the same, but in other cases the neighborhoods change drastically every ten years.

gus_massa• 4 months ago

Parisians never go out and vote, and then after they complain.

Wikipedia says that 70% of the people voted. Is it mandatory there?

Here in Argentina it's mandatory, but weakly enforced. We get also a 70% of people voting. Anyway, the big problem are bubbles, probably all the friends of the guy don't like the current mayor and complain.

thrance5• 4 months ago

It's not mandatory. Hidalgo got reelected because people like her, the media is giving too much voice to the pro-cars when 70% of Parisians never drive in the city.

KaiserPro3• 4 months ago

Is it mandatory there?

No, its the french being _very_ french. Politics is still a sport there, with a plethora of teams playing.

mrb• 4 months ago

I live in Paris and bike nearly every day, with my electric bike, or sometimes the city's velib rental bikes, sometimes private rental bikes (Uber, Dott, Voi). I love the drastic push to add more bike lanes, and reduce car lanes. I don't own a car in this city. Don't need one.

black_puppydog3• 4 months ago

People keep saying Hidalgo's policies made people angry, but then voter turnout when she actually asks for confirmation of her policies is low. For example, 2024's vote on whether to triple the parking fees for big SUVs. [1] Turnout was tiny, but the measure passed.

Well what does that mean? It certainly doesn't mean that there is a huge wave of enthusiasm for the measure.

But conversely it also means there's not a huge wave of anger about it. It's not like the automotive lobby didn't try hard to create one; the media coverage was actually kind of crazy at the time. And with the low turnout, even a small mobilization would have been sufficient to reject this measure. But it didn't materialise. So when I read articles like this one from CNN, I just have to ask myself what the agenda is behind jazzing this up as much.

[1] https://www.lerevenu.com/reduire-impots/conseils-impots/pari...

bombcar5• 4 months ago

I cannot read the fiery letters, but it’s quite possible, depending on how the affected metro vs the voting block overlaps, that those who vote aren’t those complaining.

Also complaining is easy, I could do it right now here on HN from any bathroom in the world; voting is comparatively much harder.

alamortsubite10• 4 months ago

I've noticed in my city that a lot of the complaining about impinging upon the car-centric status quo comes from people who live outside the city.

dwedge3• 4 months ago

Measures like this always seem unfair to me if they aren't announced a few years in advance. A car is a large investment and people may have made different choices knowing that the rules will change. Same with the tax per mile for Electric cars in the UK.

Instead of encouraging motorists to make better choices, they just end up feeling part of a money grab

DominikPeters• 4 months ago

Large cars impose heavy many negative externalities on people (take up more space, make it difficult to get through a narrow street when they park there, higher mortality when they drive into pedestrians or cyclists, reduce visibility for others, aesthetically offensive). Policy is slow to shift those costs onto the people causing the externalities but it is predictable that it will happen eventually.

black_puppydog3• 4 months ago

Very sorry for drivers' inconvenience, but if they hadn't realized how bad SUVs are for health, climate, and basically anything that's going on in the city, then announcing it early wouldn't have registered either, I think, since they clearly haven't been following any news.

thrance5• 4 months ago

Hidalgo has been very clear about her plans for Paris for many years now, and people are still in favor of them. People shouldn't feel entitled to driving their oversized trucks in and out of our city, when we have such a dense and efficient network of public transit that doesn't make everyone else's lives worse through noise and pollution.

b3orn• 4 months ago

I would take low voter turnout more as indifference than as lack of enthusiam. To take the parking fee for SUVs example, I would assume a lot of people affected by it and complaining about it aren't even living in Paris, so they can't vote against it.

the_real_cher• 4 months ago

Biker supremacy engaged.

paganel• 4 months ago

Yes, she's the poster-child for gentrification, that's why France is about to have a far-right government in the near term. But I guess she has made some Parisian bobos really happy, good for her.

StyloBill4• 4 months ago

Big cities in France never vote far-right, and the PS (left) candidate is leading the polls in Paris' next election, so I'm really not sure what you're talking about. Gentrification is hardly a cause for far-right coming to power.

transcriptase• 4 months ago

Vancouver did the same thing. Now remaining parking is just filled with luxury vehicles with MSRPs that indicate you could charge $100 an hour and they wouldn’t care.

Nice of the wealthy politicians to get the riffraff off the road so the guy driving a Brabus G-Wagon, Rolls, or 911 Turbo can commute and park in peace. The poors can sit on packed busses with methheads.

frugalmail• 4 months ago

Hmmm... "Mayor of Paris drastically reduces productivity of city by removing parking spaces"

StyloBill4• 4 months ago

Yes because wasting 2 to 3 hours in traffic every day surely makes people more productive.

kgwxd• 4 months ago

Not The Onion?

wao0uuno• 4 months ago

She can do the same to my city. Fuck cars. I'd rather have air to breathe and space to live.

mono442• 4 months ago

What’s good about turning a city into a tourist attraction? I don’t understand the way European communists think.

p0w3n3d2• 4 months ago

I live in Krakow and use car everyday*. There is virtually no possibility I will get my kids to school in the morning using public communication, mainly because the school is 4 kilometres away. City is so pro-clean-air and eliminate-parking-spaces and remove-cheap ekhm I mean polluting,-cars but meanwhile does nothing except for selling more and more ground for building flats. Not schools not hospitals not child daycare centres, but flats...

____

* Always going to work by bicycle if possible, but if I have violin lesson or doctor's appointment I am not able to because the distances would be too long

egman_ekki• 4 months ago

You can try an electric bike for those longer distances. It’s really fun to ride if you find a good one.

eps• 4 months ago

Especially in the rain, with a kid on a bolted-on backseat behind you and while sharing the road with cars that don't want you to be there.

Just throw in an electric motor and will suddenly become fun.

stefs3• 4 months ago

Less successfully, the road redesign has also seen a reported increase in hospitalizations among cyclists and pedestrians. well, with a lot more people walking and cycling this is to be expected. the article doesn't mention changes in accidents involving cars though.
For young, trendy and able-bodied Parisians ... i live next to a bike path. the elderly make up a a significant amount of the cyclists, probably because they don't trust themselves to drive a car anymore.

CHB0403085482• 4 months ago

Here's an opinion about bicycling in Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI-1YNAmWlk

alamortsubite10• 4 months ago

Paris is changing fast for the better; it's a great video but I feel it's already out-of-date.

Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

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