Officials in Paris announced most cars will be banned

[f.f.jones]

 

Officials in Paris announced most cars will be banned in central districts starting in 2024.

Officials in Paris announced that it would be instituting a ban on cars in certain areas of the city to help cut back on the notorious traffic jams that have become a constant problem in the French capital. The new rules will go into effect in 2024.The new plan would create a "car-free zone" that covers most of the metropolitan center, including most of the city's 1st through 4th arrondissements, travel news outlet The Points Guy reports. The bustling tourist and residential area is home to many of the city's most famous attractions, including the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle royal chapel, Tuileries Garden, and the Marais district.

[1937hd45]

Not on my "Bucket List" but thanks for the info. 

 

Bob 

[hidden_hunter]

I doubt you'd want to drive through a lot of those places anyway, though the Parasian authories should probably put more effort in dealing with the scammers ahead of the olympics 

[bryankazmer]

Moving around within the arrondissements 1-4 is generally on foot or metro anyway.  The issues will be through traffic along the Seine, and coming into/leaving from hotels.

[Walt G]

And here is what used to drive around on the streets of Paris, Renault built some ocean liners/land yachts  with wheels , the models being the Reinastella and Nervastella. A very few of these got imported into the USA when new, the photo of the front of one was taken in Maine.

[joe_padavano]

I actually had to drive in Paris during morning rush hour once. Not an experience I care to repeat - and I grew up driving in Boston! The city has a mass transit system that is more than adequate. There's no parking, the streets are randomly laid out, and they are very narrow. This isn't a place that you'd WANT to drive. No reason to get your panties in a bunch over this.

[bryankazmer]

Personally, I think Paris is slightly less painful than Boston, and neither holds a candle to Naples or Shanghai.  The Left Bank is random, the Right Bank much less so since Haussman put in the Grands Boulevards.  But I agree their is little reason to not use the Metro and have no issues.

[Terry Bond]

Ah yes- Napoli, where any existing street signs (including 'one way" and "do not enter") are merely suggestions and whoever has the right of way is determined by eye contact or facial expression. 

Terry

[joe_padavano]

25 minutes ago, Terry Bond said:

 whoever has the right of way is determined by eye contact or facial expression. 

Terry

That's exactly how it worked in Boston! 😁

[dictator27]

I think it is safe to say Paris won't be the only European city that will do this.  I know London considered the idea of limiting cars based on even/odd plate numbers on even or odd days years ago. Seems to me it caused a bit of a revolt amongst Londoners and was shelved.  Might be time to revisit it.

[bryankazmer]

Other smaller European cities have done this for years - a pedestrian zone where only emergency,delivery, and sometimes taxi traffic is allowed.  Seems to work just fine.  See Florence or Dusseldorf for example.

 

I believe London has a system which charges a higher toll rate to drive in the center zone during the most congested hours, rather than a ban.

[46 woodie]

New York City is pushing for "Congestion Pricing" in what amounts to a toll for all cars below 60th Street. What the City is trying to do is to encourage people to use mass transit, rather than driving into the City.

[Matt Harwood]

This isn't a war on cars, this is a war on traffic. Two different things.

[JACK M]

I have traveled in Europe several times.

I surmise that the cities that attract the tourists were laid out way before automobiles were invented.

Hence the narrow nearly un-navigable streets.

When one gets outside of the older areas it's not so bad, but every country has its own accepted traffic customs.

In Greece it is proper to honk horns often, (here that gets the one finger salute).

In Cairo they drive at night constantly flashing their headlights.

In Turkey you are sharing the road with everything from donkey carts to highspeed tour busses. If one goes to pass, oncoming traffic will take to the shoulder as does who you are passing giving you to stratal the center line (it is a courtesy and is the norm). Again, in the US you would be subject to the salute. (Turkey has very few four lane roads once you leave any "metro" area, no freeways, mostly what we might consider two lane country roads.)

Americans are undoubtably the most discourteous drivers in the world.

Do any of you remember a Disney cartoon about Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Walker?

Our driving habits make even the most mellow of our friends into assholes when driving. We all have that "me first" attitude. I be so blunt, that describes German tourists anywhere you are in the world.

[Trulyvintage]

Full Circle ⭕️

Pedestrian Traffic …

Horse & Buggy …

Pedestrian Traffic …

 

With The Addition Of Electric Cars

To Replace Horse & Buggy … ?

 

 

Jim

[intimeold]

I won't be going there

[Walt G]

18 hours ago, JACK M said:

We all have that "me first" attitude

That is a very broad opinion for all of us reading this and and for me an insult . Sorry I do not agree with that at all - if I had that then why on earth would I have started a thread to share period images, that would no longer be "me first" as I would then just keep what I have only for me to view and no one else?!?! so I could indeed be "me first". 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Walt G (see edit history)

[kings32]

I am not going outside this country anymore ! Kings32

[Pete O]

Keeping cars out of the central district will just force the cars into the surrounding areas, increasing the congestion in those areas.  Typical bureaucratic incompetence.

[JACK M]

14 hours ago, Walt G said:

That is a very broad opinion for all of us reading this and and for me an insult . Sorry I do not agree with that at all - if I had that then why on earth would I have started a thread to share period images, that would no longer be "me first" as I would then just keep what I have only for me to view and no one else?!?! so I could indeed be "me first". 

Didn't mean any offence.

When I generalize, I am referring to most everybody. Not you and I nor any of us on the forum of coarse.

 

But we have to admit, we all see rude driving every time out don't we?     ME FIRST !!     ME FIRST !!  We've all done it.

 

Look up that Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Walker cartoon.

[TerryB]

When you read about the founding of the city of Paris, in the times of the Roman Empire, I doubt parking for cars and city truck and car travel was not in the mind of the Romans.  I had the pleasure of visiting Paris when the company I worked for was purchased by a French company.  Besides the terrible traffic congestion, parking is non existent.  Like most of Europe, public transportation is readily available to handle the needs.  I did drive out in the countryside near Dijon which was quite nice but even there parking was difficult to find.

[bryankazmer]

Most parking in Paris is under the squares - from ground level all you see is a ramp with a blue "P" sign.

[SC38dls]

We were in Pairs as GI’s, four of us in a Fiat 124.  We spent a few days there then on to Amsterdam. Trying to get out of Paris we got lost, we ere in front of some very ornate gates when we stopped and found someone to given

 us directions. The heavily armed cops in front of the gate didn’t take to us very kindly when we blocked the entrance. The instructions were more than confusing and two hours later we were back in front of the gates. Two of the guys spoke Spanish and Italian the other spoke German non of us spoke French. The three of them went up to the cops who immediately pointed the automatic weapons at them as the car again was blocking the entrance. I was sitting on the car laughing and taking pictures as the three of them started explaining in three different languages with the cops yelling in French. Finally the cops understood when one of my fellow GI’s held up the map and pointed to it. The cops drew the way out of town on the map. We were lost within 15 minutes after leaving the gates. 
dave s 

 

ps- we finally did make it out of town and had an Amsterdam good time once we got there. 

 

[TerryB]

Dave, your story makes me laugh at my own attempts to drive in France.  I traveled by TGV from Paris to Dijon and then rented a car in Dijon. The factory I was visiting was in Genlis France and every day I would make the 30 or so minute drive to Genlis with no problem and every day like clockwork I would make the wrong turn somewhere on the trip back towards Dijon (one way going out, another one way coming in).  So each day I saw something new and exciting but not what where I wanted to be or what I had planned to do.  My salvation was finding the Gar (train) station signs as I got closer to Dijon as my hotel was close to the train station.  For a time I thought the locals were purposely changing the signs and arrows on the return route just so they could see me wandering lost around the city😀.

[Larry Schramm]

I have driven in Paris a couple of times.  I think the driving there is a three way tie between Paris, Boston & Montreal. All tough, and I have driven in almost every North American city and much of Europe.  London was only difficult because I (you) need to keep telling yourself stay left and go clock wise around the traffic circles.

[JACK M]

16 hours ago, Larry Schramm said:

London was only difficult because I (you) need to keep telling yourself stay left and go clock wise around the traffic circles.

Thats the one place I didn't want to try.

[hidden_hunter]

Not really that difficult driving on the wrong side of the road, the biggest issue I find is directions and positioning in lanes

 

Things like speed signs can be hard to spot in some places

[1957Birdman]

All of this reminded me of The Rendezvous. 

 

Enjoy the way it once was.

Lew Bachman

1957 Thunderbird

[Graham Man]

Sounds like they all ready removed the teeth... so basically it wont do anything, love politicians. 

 

We had our downtown shut down from cars, it took about a year to realize without cars people could not park close enough to shop...back to normal now.

 

Exceptions will be made for public vehicles, residents who live in the included areas, delivery drivers, and those accessing services such as shopping.

 

https://electrek.co/2022/02/24/pariss-great-experiment-will-ban-cars-in-much-of-the-city-instead-opting-for-bikes-scooters-legs/

[Robert G. Smits]

On 2/25/2022 at 11:24 AM, TerryB said:

parking is non existent

Having been to Paris 18-20 times I only rented a car once.  The rental agency was a block and half from my Hotel and it took me 45 minutes to get back.   After that if we were taking excursion into the country side we would rent a car at De Galle and ride the Air France bus out to the airport.  One of the local's told me that 1.5 million cars enter Paris daily and there are only 750,000 parking spaces.

[32buick67]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:03 AM, Terry Bond said:

Ah yes- Napoli, where any existing street signs (including 'one way" and "do not enter") are merely suggestions and whoever has the right of way is determined by eye contact or facial expression. 

Terry

I didn't mind Napoli so much, I get the fact that 'anything goes' there, and for me that was ok, but according to the stats, India is the #1 country for fatalities and Italy is #1 for accidents.

I recall dropping my wife and kids off at Napoli Centrale (the main train station) and telling them that I will meet them in Roma if I get stuck in traffic.

The way I explain driving in Italia to my friends is that you have to expect anything, at any time.  There are no rules, only suggestions, so stay relaxed but very alert.

Its fun for a naturally alert driver.

Now, on the contrary, driving in Germany is by the book.  I don't like driving in Germany, everything seems binary and rigid and not so fluid which is boring to me, but great for folks who use blinkers incessantly.

 

I enjoyed the Autobahn out of Germany, but I was in a pathetic VW driving like a slug at 120mph with my foot to the floor for many boring hours while the Ferrari's and Mercedes passed me at 200mph.

I could feel their pressure wave behind me as they cut into my lame boxy airstream.  It was like someone going 80mph next to a soapbox car.

 

Funny moment - when I was cruising to the train station back to Napoli (after visiting my family in the countryside) with my immediate family in the Peugeot sedan, I was excessively speeding (yes, I was shamefully wrong) past the Carabinieri (Italian state trooper equivalent) on the Italian interstate, and at one point my wife turned to me and asked why we were going 115mph (about 35mph above the posted speed limit) and I told her I had never drove a manual car with 6 gears, and how we were only in 5th gear and I wanted to try out 6th gear.  I was disappointed to climb more mph into 6th gear only to have to slow down as we arrived in to Napoli proper. 

BTW, IMHO 115mph is a snoozer speed, especially in Europe.  140-160mph is a nice and comfortable cruising speed depending on the area and backdrop.  I do wish I had a Jag for that trip, but alas...  

 

What is really ironic is that my idea of a truly good time now is driving 45mph with my family to go get some DQ.

I guess its true that speed matters not when cruising at family speed...

 

  

[Bhigdog]

When I drive I like to pull my hat down to my ears, go below the speed limit, and always leave my left turn signal on. When at a green light I like To stay way back from the intersection  while I wait on opposing traffic. Sometimes for 2 cycles. Can't be too safe. On the high way I find it best to stay to the left of the slowest car. Everyone drives too fast any way. A stop sign means STOP and wait until you can't see ANY cars coming no matter how far away. When turning left a on a two lane road it's best to start from the right hand shoulder, especially if there are cars coming the other way.

American drivers are sooo rude. Everyone seems to give me the finger..........Bob

[Grimy]

42 minutes ago, Bhigdog said:

When I drive I like to pull my hat down to my ears, go below the speed limit, and always leave my left turn signal on. When at a green light I like To stay way back from the intersection  while I wait on opposing traffic. Sometimes for 2 cycles. Can't be too safe. On the high way I find it best to stay to the left of the slowest car. Everyone drives too fast any way. A stop sign means STOP and wait until you can't see ANY cars coming no matter how far away. When turning left a on a two lane road it's best to start from the right hand shoulder, especially if there are cars coming the other way.

American drivers are sooo rude. Everyone seems to give me the finger..........Bob

Florida Geezer Man!  🙂

[George K]

Who cares. It’s France. They can’t fight their way out of paper bag or even drive in the snow.

[Phillip Cole]

On 2/24/2022 at 1:44 PM, Matt Harwood said:

This isn't a war on cars, this is a war on traffic. Two different things.

Yes, that's true!

Although, having driven in various European cities on numerous occasions, I never saw the traffic as the real problem.  It was the lack or expense of parking.  I got a parking ticket in Paris almost 50 years ago.  Didn't really know what it was until a fellow in London translated it for me.  

[bryankazmer]

1 hour ago, George K said:

Who cares. It’s France. They can’t fight their way out of paper bag or even drive in the snow.

Really?  How do they get from in Grenoble and Val d'Isere to the Mont Blanc tunnel?

[George K]

There would not be a France if our country didn’t save them in WW2. Got firsthand from my father who fought there. As for snow they show the same courage.

[JV Puleo]

And if it wasn't for France and the Comte de Rochambeau, we would probably have lost the Revolution. At one point on the march to Yorktown a significant portion of the Continental Army refused to go any further unless they were paid...something Congress frequently neglected. Rochambeau paid the American troops out his own military chest.

[George K]

Best thing France did for this country was the Louisiana purchase. 

[SC38dls]

It’s a beautiful country, nice people and good wine and bread. I’m sure you may not find it that way if you want to be an ugly American. Some of their cars are interesting also. 
dave s