according to a study published yesterday by Airparif (the official department in charge of monitoring air pollution in the Ile de France region), said pollution has decreased 32% in Paris since 2002. Combined with the launch of the much-ballyhooed tramway last weekend, this is another sign for backers of Paris' current mayoral team that their policies are starting to work and are the right way to go.
But it does not take more than a cursory analysis to realize that this impressive figure is actually the result of factors wholly different than local politics: broken down, this 32% figure is in fact composed of 26% due to car technological advances, and the rest, i.e. 6%, to the reduction of traffic in the city. Viewed thus, the evolution clearly doesn't seem that imposing, especially considering all the hullabaloo that was made around the introduction of bus corridors and how much they were supposed to reduce the number of cars driving around Paris, and thus, air pollution caused by the nitrogen oxide released by them. As the study points out, even though the amount of car traffic has decreased as hoped, the number of small vehicles like scooters, as well as delivery vans, has increased.
So overall, an effective 6% decline might not signal to a great policy, but I'm glad that this mayor and his team have been trying to change things (even if they have at times seemed a bit overeager on the roadwork aspect of things - see the horror that still is Boulevard Magenta, almost three years after work started). There's more and more talk of introducing a congestion tax in Paris, kind of like London has done, and that might be a good idea. But for now, I hope the city will stay the course on its current policy of trying to develop public transportation while still accommodating car owners who live in Paris (such as by providing cheap residential parking).
for more : Parisist
But it does not take more than a cursory analysis to realize that this impressive figure is actually the result of factors wholly different than local politics: broken down, this 32% figure is in fact composed of 26% due to car technological advances, and the rest, i.e. 6%, to the reduction of traffic in the city. Viewed thus, the evolution clearly doesn't seem that imposing, especially considering all the hullabaloo that was made around the introduction of bus corridors and how much they were supposed to reduce the number of cars driving around Paris, and thus, air pollution caused by the nitrogen oxide released by them. As the study points out, even though the amount of car traffic has decreased as hoped, the number of small vehicles like scooters, as well as delivery vans, has increased.
So overall, an effective 6% decline might not signal to a great policy, but I'm glad that this mayor and his team have been trying to change things (even if they have at times seemed a bit overeager on the roadwork aspect of things - see the horror that still is Boulevard Magenta, almost three years after work started). There's more and more talk of introducing a congestion tax in Paris, kind of like London has done, and that might be a good idea. But for now, I hope the city will stay the course on its current policy of trying to develop public transportation while still accommodating car owners who live in Paris (such as by providing cheap residential parking).
for more : Parisist
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