Champs-Elysées closes to traffic

THE CHAMPS-Elysées will be closed to traffic for one Sunday in every month, the mayor of Paris has announced.

In addition the capital will also hold further no-car days like the one in September, but with the whole city centre taking part instead of key quartiers which only made up roughly 30% of its urban centre.

In her New Year’s speech, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the right bank of the Seine between the Pont des Tuileries and the Pont Henri-IV would be permanently pedestrianised by this summer.

As part of plans to improve air quality in the capital, further traffic restrictions such as emergency bans on odd or even numbered vehicles, would be introduced, along with more restrictions on old lorries.

Paris suffered scenes similar to Beijing in November last year when it was enveloped in smog just days ahead of an international environmental conference.

France regularly flouts European rules on air quality. According to Airparif, which measures pollution in the city, the level of harmful nitrogen dioxide at the Quais des Célestins, opposite the Île Saint-Louis in the centre, regularly topped 100µg/m3 with an average of 66µg/m3 over the year – well above the EU limit of 40µg/m3.
Photo:Flickr/Yortw