REFILE - Paris seeks to greenify 500 streets and close them off to cars

Record ID: 1984850

  • Title: REFILE - Paris seeks to greenify 500 streets and close them off to cars
  • Date: 21st March 2025
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MARCH 18, 2025) (REUTERS) PEDESTRIANS ON FERDINAND FLOCON STREET IN PARIS’ 18TH ARRONDISSEMENT, CLOSED OFF TO CAR TRAFFIC, CALLED ’SCHOOL STREETS’ OR ‘GARDEN STREETS’ IN PARIS SIGN SHOWING ADULT AND CHILD AND THAT CARS AND MOTORISED VEHICLES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PASS SACRE COEUR BASILICA SEEN FROM STREET STREET EU AND FRENCH FLAG ON SCHOOL BUILDING ON STREET F
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: cars pedestrian streets pollution urban planning
  • Location: PARIS AND ARPAJON, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS AND ARPAJON, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Climate Adaptation and Solution,Climate Change,Environment,Europe,General News
  • Reuters ID: LVA001066521032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:The city of Paris will hold a vote on Sunday (March 23), asking residents whether they would like to see 500 more streets pedestrianised and off-limits to cars.
    Following a vote in 2023 to rid the French capital of e-scooters, and a vote last year to increase parking fees for SUVs, Sunday’s proposition to greenify around 300 meters of roads in each neighborhood is the latest salvo from the Paris city hall to give back urban spaces to pedestrians and cyclists.
    Two hundred streets are already been pedestrianised around Paris, with 118 of them having schools. Plants and flowers have been installed over the concrete pavements.
    Reducing pollution by creating “lungs” or green pockets within the congested city of 2 million people is the objective of such measure, deputy mayor Patrick Bloche said.
    A real estate agent, Claire Genet, said she is seeing “a craze” over pedestrian-only streets, with properties in such zones increasing in value because there is less noise.
    Philippe Noziere, president of an automobile owners’ association 40M, said the city is again pushing out cars without thinking of consequences.
    “It's still a city where people work, where workers are forced to get around, where people from the greater Paris region are forced to come, where there's business,” Noziere said, adding that pedestrianisation will not remove cars but only transplant them to other streets, rendering net pollution levels the same.
    The Greater Paris region or Ile de France, which includes adjacent and nearby suburbs, has a population of 12 million, and many of its residents drive to Paris on a daily basis.
    If passed, the measure will also remove 10,000 parking spots in Paris, the city hall said.
    “It's simply a matter of drivers changing their usage and changing their habits. And when they have the chance, often to take public transport or use a bicycle, then they must do it,” Bloche said.
    If Parisians say yes to the proposal, Bloche said residents will be consulted on which 500 roads to pedestrianise.
    Store owner Lea Robert said she appreciates the car-free road in front of her boutique, and she recalls rollerblading in safety with her small children.
    “But then 500 more (streets) in Paris, I think there are already quite a few...that might be a bit too much,” Robert said.
    Parisians from 16 years old and older will be able to vote on Sunday.
    (Production: Clotaire Achi, Antony Paone, Michaela Cabrera)
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