Paris shows old cars the red light in pollution crackdown
PARIS: Travellers face being fined for driving through Paris in "old bangers" after a new ban on cars registered before 1997 came into force yesterday (Friday).
The ban, part of a concerted attempt by the Socialist mayor to cut pollution, outlaws all vehicles that were registered before Jan 1 1997 and all motorcycles registered before 1999. More than half a million owners in and around the French capital will be affected, according to motorists' groups.
The vehicles may no longer be driven inside the ring road - or Peripherique - from 8am to 8pm on weekdays.
Despite attempts to pedestrianise parts of the city centre and encourage people to ride bikes, Paris suffers from regular high air pollution and recently briefly overtook Shanghai as the world's most smog-filled city.
A recent French study found that almost 2,500 people a year die from air pollution in Paris, with a further 4,166 dying from it in the city's suburbs.
There are 430,000 cars in the capital that have been on the road least 19 years, along with 13,000 motorbikes, and 50,000 trucks, Le Parisien newspaper reports. But Paris authorities estimate the ban will affect only around 10,000 of the 600,000 vehicles driving in Paris on any given day.
Motorists who break the new rules face a euros 35 (pounds 29.30) fine, starting from October, with the penalty increased in January to euros 68 for private cars and euros 135 for trucks. There are exceptions for vintage cars, including tourist vehicles such as the open-topped Citroen 2CVs used on guided tours.
The rules will get even stricter in 2020, when Anne Hidalgo, the mayor, wants to banish all cars over nine years old and all diesel vehicles.
The new rules have been slated by some motorists' groups, who say they will hit the poor hardest. One staged a protest across Paris on Friday, touring the capital in "illegal" vehicles.
Motorbike owners are due to follow suit on July 8 after a call for acts of "disobedience and resitance".
"Under the pretext of purifying the air, the City Hall is going to cull thousands of vehicles that are in perfect working order and that aren't any more polluting than the latest SUV," said the motorbike riders' federation of Seine-et-Marne.
City Hall is offering euros 400 to drivers who hand in their old bangers, saying the money can go towards public transport passes or subscriptions to a bike rental or electric car scheme.