2023-04-18 17:20:57
Paris wants to set up an extra lane for carpooling and public transport on its city freeway from next year. In addition, the maximum speed should be limited from the current 70 to 50 kilometers per hour. A public debate on the project began on Monday evening and is expected to continue until the end of May. “We don’t want to reduce the number of people using the city freeway, but the number of vehicles,” emphasized the city’s traffic officer David Belliard. The left lane of the city motorway is to be reserved for athletes, rescue workers and organizers for the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024.
Numerous details have yet to be clarified, such as who exactly is allowed to use the extra lane and how this is to be controlled. The City of Paris is proposing to reserve the extra lane for the morning and late afternoon rush hours. The Paris city highway, which also marks the border to the suburbs, is one of the busiest roads in Europe. It is used for around one million journeys every day. Due to the numerous traffic jams, the average speed is between 30 and 45 kilometers per hour during the day and up to 60 in the evening.
The leader of the Île-de-France region surrounding Paris, Valérie Pécresse, criticizes the plan, which she believes will disadvantage residents of the suburbs. Given the heavy traffic, it was “impossible to close a lane,” she emphasized in an earlier debate. This would lead to a traffic collapse.
The government has set a goal of increasing the number of daily carpools from around 900,000 to three million. Since December, drivers who offer carpooling opportunities can receive a bonus of up to 100 euros. Carpooling should “become a reflex”, stressed Transport Minister Clément Beaune, not only for trips to work but also to the children’s school or to the supermarket. According to government estimates, around 100 million car trips are made in France every day, most of them with just one person in the car.
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