In June 1992, the European Comission presented a pollution study. “The dream of a city without cars is a necessary and achievable reform, both from the point of view economic What environmental“, then defended the Environment Commissioner, Carlo Ripa di Meana. States were advised to take urgent measuresshake off the words that the French President George Pompidou had pronounced in 1967, that Paris had to fit the car. Decades have passed and the metropolises keep the pulse of pollution. With a disturbing addition: experts in the field warn of a point of no return after 2030 and UN-Habitat expects that by 2035 there will be 429 new metropolises and that one billion people become part of the population of the big cities.
Low emission zonespromotion of public transport and active mobility, tactical urbanism, urban tollelectrification of public fleets, optimization of merchandise distribution, incentives for electric car (what about the bike…?), removal of parking spaces on the surface…, each metropolis applies its particular recipe, combining its own needs with learning from alien strategies. In recent times, much has been said about Paris and its mayor, Anne Hidalgobut also London, New York and many other large cities on the planet are immersed in this transition towards better air quality.
Everything, in a society that bets more and more on the ‘sharing‘ (by conviction, by the new generational habits or because the salaries do not give more of themselves), with scientific evidence about the lives that pollution annually takes away in cities, with supra-municipal units that transcend urban limits and with a population growth that is soaring, especially in the less developed areas and, in many cases, barely committed to the climate crisis. Thus, it assumes the challenge of contamination increasingly urbanized world.
PARIS
PARIS
Traffic decreases, traffic jams increase
The Paris City Council promoted in recent years ambitious measures to reduce circulation of vehicles on the streets. Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo made this fight against air pollution one of her hallmarks. In fact, she pretends ban non-essential travel from the city center (except public transport, state services or to go shopping or work in that area) from 2024. A device similar to that of Madrid Central, but with an area almost twice as large that of the Spanish capital; that is, about 9 square kilometers.
Before, the Parisian municipality had already applied policies in this direction. The best known of these, and surely also the most controversial, was the closure to the circulation of motorized vehicles on the banks of the Seine since 2016. A few years later, the size of the bicycle lanes was increased on rue Rivoli, in the heart of the location. In September of last year, the maximum speed on the vast majority of Parisian streets was reduced to 30 km/h. Some emblematic areas, such as the Saint-Martin canal, are reserved exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists on public holidays. They also want to ‘vegetate’ and halve the lanes on the Champs-Elysées.
Traffic down 16% in 2020
All these measures contributed to the metamorphosis of mobility in Paris, with just over two million inhabitants, but frequented daily by more than five million. In recent years, the French capital has accelerated its conversion from a town in which the car had a predominant weight to another in which journeys on foot, public transport or by bicycle are the majority. During Hidalgo’s first term, between 2014 and 2019, the circulation of motorized vehicles fell by 19%. This transformation was even more significant in 2020. Traffic decreased by 16% in those twelve months marked by the covid-19 pandemic.
In parallel, a bicycle boom has taken place in the last four years. Traveling on two wheels grew by up to 60% in 2020, according to the latest data from the Capital City Council. These changes favored Paris winning the reputation of ‘new Amsterdam’, although the presence of bicycles is still much lower compared to the Dutch city.
The French city with the most traffic jams
Despite these measures, air pollution did not disappear of the Parisian streets. In 2020, there were 14 days when alert levels for pollution were exceeded. This figure has remained stable since 2014. Paris is one of the French cities where there are more traffic jams and drivers spend more time behind the wheel. And they increased slightly in recent years.
In fact, the municipal opposition of the republican right criticizes Hidalgo that the measures to limit circulation are not reducing traffic, but rather moving it to other areas. Another unwanted effect was the increase in bicycle accidents. As many as eight of them died in 2020, twice as many as a year earlier. The Paris City Council still has work to do in its transformation of mobility. ENRIC BONET
LONDON
LONDON
Permanent tolls as a deterrent weapon
London authorities have been trying for decades to reduce traffic, limit congestion and curb pollution in a very large city where 9 million people live and there are 2.6 million registered cars. The emphasis on public transport and more recently on the use of the bicycle as the preferred means of travel has been gaining ground, although the car is still omnipresent. An 57% of households Londoners have at least one.
permanent toll
The British capital was one of the first cities in the world to impose a permanent urban toll in the center. The call Congestion Charge It started operating in February 2003. The cost for any vehicle circulating between 7:00 and 18:00 from Monday to Friday and from 12:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays is currently 15 pounds per day (18 euros). The only free period is from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Residents have a 90% discount and it is free for people with disabilities. From October 2021 and until the end of 2025 they are also zero emission vehicles exempt from payment, such as electric ones and those that work with hydrogen. traffic volume has been reduced by a third compared to almost twenty years ago.
War on toxic vehicles
The Congestion Zone is not the only toll. Old cars have to pay additionally 12.5 pounds (14.8 euros) daily to enter the center during the 24 hours. It is called the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) (Ultra Low Emission Zone) in force since 2019, with which it is intended to combat pollution and get rid of toxic vehicles, especially diesel vehicles over four years old and gasoline vehicles over 13 years old. Some 40,000 vehicles are in this situation and the fine for offenders is 185 euros. Traditional black taxis, cars for the disabled or models listed as historic are exempt. The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) also operates 24 hours a day on the outskirts of London and affects trucks, buses, vans and other heavy duty diesel vehicles. The rate ranges from 119 euros per day to 356 euros.
Subway and bike
London’s public transport network is extensive. The subway (Tube) has 11 lines with 272 stations covering 400 kilometres. Added to this are the suburban services of the Overground network and the DLR. The city also has a fleet of 8,600 buses (2,000 are hybrids, 73 electric and 8 run on hydrogen) that cover 700 routes different and are used every day by 6.5 million passengers.
The pandemic has triggered bicycle use and the mayor, Sadiq Khan, wants citizens to use it more and more. There are currently some built 360 km of bike path and the goal is for the network to reach the 1,400 kilometers. In October of last year, 18% of Londoners already lived near one of these circuits. There is 12,000 rental bikes (Santander Cycles), which can be found at 800 stations in the network. The cost is 2.4 euros for 24 hours, with the first 30 minutes free. BEGOÑA MAPLE
NEW YORK
NEW YORK
The car comes back with a vengeance
Cars have conquered New York again, and it would seem with a vengeance after the pandemic. The city topped the list of the most bottled in the United States last year. The enormous traffic jams have returned, now largely displaced from Manhattan to other neighborhoods, and with them come their consequences, including the environmental. And the car and truck engines are the ones that roar deafening despite the fact that the City Council, whose reins took over in January by Eric Adams, an avid cyclist, maintains its commitment to making more and more space for bicycles and pedestrians, as well as reinforcing public transport, which, unlike the car, is still far from recovering its pre-pandemic levels.
The impact of the pandemic It largely explains what is happening in the city: the purchase of private vehicles increased significantly, shared trips fell and have not returned, and the rise of online shopping has left as a legacy the soaring circulation of delivery trucks.
Manhattan tolls delayed
Political factors also influence what is happening. The plan for impose a fee on cars to access Manhattan between 60th Street and Battery Park, on the southern tip of the island, which former Governor Andrew Cuomo approved after years of resistance in 2019, has been delayed until at least 2023. Because although with the arrival of Joe Biden to the White House The blockade imposed by the Donald Trump Administration was unblocked, the process, from the environmental impact review that would take 16 months to the determination of prices and exemptions, is still in its infancy.
The municipal authorities, in any case, remain committed to the sustainable reconversion of the city. Adams has taken over Vision Zero, the traffic safety policy launched by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, which reduced from 48 to 40 kilometers per hour the maximum speed allowed in most cameras, deployed a network of automated speed control cameras and redesigned many streets to make them safer for cyclists and pedestrians and that in its eight years of existence has become a national model.
Bike, bus lane, pedestrians…
Adams has also endorsed a plan that De Blasio presented in December, a 10-year initiative with a $1.7 billion investment that includes 400 kilometers of protected bike lanes, 240 kilometers of bus lanes with cameras, a strategy to value and make the necessary corrections to truck routes and unloading areas or improvements to 2,500 bus stops.
The current mayor presented his own plan last month to invest 904 million dollars over the next five years, for which he will also add 300 blocks to the Open Streets program, which closes streets to traffic, or redesign 1,000 intersections to improve safety.
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They are necessary steps in a city where, with the strong return of the car, figures of what is called “traffic violence” have also returned. They hadn’t seen each other in a decade. Between January and April, fatalities from traffic accidents rose by 21%, with almost 70 people deadincluding 30 pedestrians, two cyclists and four users of electric scooters.
The use of public transportation in New York is also far from returning to pre-pandemic levels and is partly shaken by the perception of growing insecurity. One of Adams’ proposals for buses, especially vital in areas not served by the subway, is to double the bus lanes, adding 240 kilometers to the 224 that already exist. IDOYA NOAIN