“Paris was the cradle of the car”: why the capital today has too many parking lots

2023-11-29 06:51:41

Overhead parking lots, car dealerships, garages… The car shaped the construction of Paris throughout the 20th century. Today, the city is going the opposite way. In 2019, 34% of households had a car in the capital, compared to 43% in 1975. Figures to be compared to the 86% of French households owning at least one car. Paul Smith, historian of industrial heritage, has studied the unique link between Paris and automobile heritage.