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Long Term Vision

With Paris introducing a large traffic-free zone, like our LTNs, Carlton Reid explains why mayors must be braver

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If you’ve been to Paris recently (or read the summer edition of London Cyclist), you’ll have seen the great strides the city has been making in removing car parking places, improving pedestrian infrastructure, and adding cycleways.

Now, against stiff opposition, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has introduced a ZTL, or limited traffic zone, covering 5.5 square kilometres right in the centre.

Similar to some Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) over here, motor vehicle access to this ZTL will be authorised only for emergency vehicles, buses, taxis, people with reduced mobility, and motorists living or working in the zone.

Confusingly, there’s also authorisation for so-called ‘destination traffic’, including those motorists in the area for a specific reason, such as a medical appointment, shopping, or even a cinema visit.

That covers a lot of sins so it’ll be interesting to see how this latter measure operates in practice. There are many existing ZTLs across Europe, but — unlike the Parisian one — they are mostly quite small.

I walked through one recently and it was glorious to experience the quiet and the safety of an area fully permeable to residents in their cars, but where motorists did not dominate.

I was in Trento, Italy, for the Vision Dolomite climate conference where I chaired a mobility session. Afterwards, I got to talk to one of the conference’s expert speakers, Martin Powell.

Powell is the group sustainability director at AXA, but you may remember him as the deputy mayor for the environment in London under Boris Johnson. Now living and working in Paris, Powell has also been a special advisor to the C40 cities group chaired by the billionaire former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.

 

“Good ideas are hard to kill... successive mayors tend to keep things that work.”

Much to learn

As a Paris resident — and the editor of the 2022 academic book The Climate City — Powell is well placed to talk about Hidalgo’s ZTL and how it will improve the city’s air, as well as reduce chronic congestion.

“I think [Hidalgo] is wonderful,” Powell said. “I think what she’s done for Paris is potentially saving a world city.” Indeed, he added, “cities like New York and London could learn much from it… Anne Hidalgo sees a long-term vision for a superb Paris.”

But, cautioned Powell, “she is currently very unpopular.” However, he stressed, “ten years from now, people will recognise what she did was wonderful.” And he doesn’t think her successor will reverse her policies.

London is a case in point, he believes. “There was no rejection of key policies from Ken [Livingstone] to Boris [Johnson]. I’m good friends with Shirley Rodriguez, who’s recently left the mayor’s office in London [she was deputy mayor for the environment from 2016 to 2024], and she didn’t experience Sadiq Khan unravelling a lot of what Johnson did.”

As always, political will is key. “Once you push through something that might be unpopular with some, in the end, people accept, okay, it’s here to stay, and you move on. But it takes courage to stick with unpopular decisions.”

For Powell, London works as a major city because it has so many transport options.

“A functioning world city gives you all the choices that you want. The challenge is to make [that transport] as sustainable as possible.”

This article was originally published in London Cyclist summer 2024, London Cycling Campaign’s exclusive member’s magazine. Join as a member today for quarterly copies of London Cyclist delivered to your door, free legal advice, discounts in independent bike shops across London, and much more…

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