Paris Will Ban Through Traffic in City Center

Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s latest effort to rein in car use and fight pollution would prevent non-residents from driving across the French capital's historic heart in 2022.

In an announcement Wednesday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo set an audacious new benchmark in her ongoing campaign to reduce car use across the French capital: a ban on most vehicle traffic crossing the city center in 2022.

The plan would stop through traffic from a large zone covering Paris’ core, to cut pollution and noise and free up more space for trees, cycle lanes and pedestrian areas. A public consultation for the plan launched this week. 

The new zone would not ban cars altogether: It would still permit motorized access to the zone’s residents (including short-term hotel guests), to people with disabilities, and to vehicles used for public transit, deliveries or services. The new rules would nonetheless make it illegal to drive across the city center without stopping. That would cover about 55% of total traffic — more than 100,000 cars — passing through this zone on average per day, the city says. 

The plan comes after years during which Hidalgo’s administration has systematically sought to rein in automobile use. The city has already barred heavily polluting diesel cars from within the city’s beltway, pedestrianized the Seine quayside, reduced car access on many major streets and expanded green areas and sidewalks in areas previously reserved for driving and parking. After introducing further vehicle lane closures and bike paths during the pandemic, Hidalgo has remained adamant that the lifting of lockdown restrictions and the return to workplaces must not signal a return to a streetscape dominated by cars.

The car-calmed zone will be a new tool to fend off a post-pandemic car comeback within Paris’ innermost ring of boulevards, a zone of around 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles). This area stretches east to west between the two squares that bookend the heart of the city — from the Place de la Bastille all the way to the Place de la Concorde — and include the city’s two central islands, the Marais district (already substantially pedestrianized) and much of the Left Bank’s Latin Quarter. Not all of Paris’ busiest quarters would be included in the zone — the Champs Elysées, for example, would lie outside it, as would the major shopping district around the Garnier Opera House. But the lion’s share of Paris government buildings and cultural institutions will lie within its borders, along with a large portion of its stores and restaurants. The city has also suggested it might extend the zone further, if the public consultation suggested there was an appetite to do so.

Vehicles entering this zone will be monitored by city officials, according to Paris Transit Commissioner David Belliard, with fines meted out to non-residents and those entering without permit. Details on enforcement haven’t been shared; similar traffic-restriction programs, as in London, use hundreds of automated cameras. Meanwhile, new barriers and pedestrianization schemes will also reduce the number of streets allowing access.

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The zone is needed, the city says, because much of the traffic flowing around the Place de la Concorde consists of vehicles making trips that could easily be carried out by public transport. The city’s press release estimates that 70% of current through-journeys in the zone need not be carried out by car. The plan may slow any swing back to car use among Parisians as residents resume regular habits after the pandemic, in a city where, as of April 2021, public transit ridership still remained at just 60% of its pre-crisis levels

Elsewhere in Europe, other cities are also seeking to curb traffic. Oslo will start to phase out access for fossil-fueled vehicles in 2022, while  London and Milan have employed congestion charges for cars driving into their centers for several years. Within France, the cities of Lille and Nantes already have low-speed limit, pedestrian-priority zones covering their downtowns.

But fans of these pollution-fighting edicts faced a setback in another European capital this week, when a Spanish court refused an appeal seeking to defend Madrid’s low-traffic zone, called Madrid Central. The largest and most ambitious measure of its kind to date in Europe, Madrid Central had been canceled in July 2020 because a court ruled that its creation had failed to offer clear public disclosure or provide the necessary economic assessment. The administration of Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said it would not contest the ruling — understandably so, given that it was colleagues in the mayor’s own Popular Party who filed the initial complaints against the zone when they were in opposition. Under pressure to meet national requirements for emissions reduction, Madrid may still retain some form of traffic limits in its city center. 

Madrid’s fate is still not one that Paris is likely to face for a while. Hidalgo’s progressive environmental and transportation policies have not always made her time in the public eye easy, but she has largely escaped political consequences for any pushback against  them. Having been re-elected at the head of a left-leaning coalition that includes the French Green Party in June 2020, her administration in a fairly strong position to implement sweeping change. While this latest ban stands to mark a new milestone in the city’s car-free agenda, it’s unlikely to be the last.

In a first, New York passes law banning new fossil fuel vehicle sales after 2034

New York will ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles starting in 2035 and require all new cars to produce zero emissions. The new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last week, will help slash the state’s carbon pollution by 35 percent. It would put New York well on its way to achieving its statewide carbon reduction goals of 85 percent below 1990 levels.

While the sunset date is in line with other plans from the state government, hitting the goal will still require significant planning and coordination. Though electric vehicles aren’t uncommon in New York, the state is effectively starting from zero—around 1 percent of new vehicles sold in the Empire State are fully electric.

The new law doesn’t stop at passenger vehicles. It also requires zero emissions for off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 and for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045. There’s some wiggle room with these mandates should batteries or fuel cells for large trucks or construction equipment lag significantly. The law says zero emissions will only be required “where feasible.”

With 14 years before the mandate kicks in, there’s plenty of time to work out the kinks. Still, the state legislature didn’t want to leave things to chance. The law requires various state agencies to coordinate to produce a market-development strategy by the end of next year. The strategy will also have to consider how to support the market for both new and used EVs, which should help address some concerns about affordability.

New York will most likely have the new vehicle market on its side. BloombergNEF forecasts that battery electric vehicles will reach price parity with fossil fuel vehicles in 2022 for passenger cars and in 2024 for trucks and SUVs. (Fuel cell vehicles would also qualify, but so far, those sales amount to a rounding error.)

Building networks

Convincing the public to buy EVs requires more than just incentives, of course. For many people, charging remains a hurdle in either a physical or psychological sense (or both). The state will have to roll out a significant fast-charging network to facilitate long-distance travel, and it will have to encourage cities to install slower, level-2 charging infrastructure to allow renters and condo dwellers to charge. Such a network would include the usual places, like grocery stores and shopping malls, but also streets and parking garages.

Curbside charging would be especially important in New York City, where on-street parking is the rule rather than the exception. By 2050, the city predicts it will need 800,000 level-2 chargers and 60,000 fast chargers. And given that the Big Apple is home to over 40 percent of the state’s population, solving that problem is likely on the top of state agencies’ lists.

New York City has already begun experimenting with curbside charging, installing 120 chargers that EV owners can pay to use by the hour. The initial installations were sited based on projected demand, community input, and geographic diversity. Business owners can request that a charger be installed in front of their building, too. Parking spaces in front of the EV service equipment are reserved for actively charging vehicles. Cars not charging can be ticketed.

Another solution would be to piggyback EV chargers on streetlight poles. Los Angeles has already installed over 430 of them scattered throughout the city, and London has converted over 1,300 lampposts to add EV charging. Kansas City is trialing the setup, too, with plans to install 30–60 by the end of the year.

Second statewide mandate

New York is the latest state to announce a sunset date for new fossil fuel vehicle sales. Last September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (also a Democrat) issued an executive order directing the California Air Resources Board, better known as CARB, to develop regulations to mandate zero emissions for all new passenger cars and trucks by 2035. The order was issued under California’s unique authority under the Clean Air Act, which gives the Golden State the power to make laws and regulations stricter than the federal code. Massachusetts joined California last year in announcing a phaseout date of 2035.

Washington state attempted to pass a law earlier this year with a sunset date of 2030. The law made it through the legislature but was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who was concerned that the sunset date was tied to the implementation of a road-usage charge. The zero-emissions vehicle mandate, he said, was too important to be tied to other initiatives.

New York’s law makes it the first to be passed by a state legislature and signed by the governor. By going through the traditional legislative process, it may establish a template that other states can follow.

Car-Free Suburban Phoenix Development Offers Transit Incentives for Tenants

Welcome to “The Mobile City,” our weekly roundup of newsworthy transportation developments.

Tempe Apartment Community Bans Cars, Offers Transit Incentives to Residents

Even though Phoenix has a light-rail transit system, Arizona’s sprawling largest city is probably one of the last places one might expect a private developer to build a residential community where cars are outlawed. Yet Bloomberg CityLab reports that this very thing is happening in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe.

Oddly enough, the carless apartment community now rising on 17 acres next to a light-rail station there is called Culdesac. Set to open in 2022, the $170 million Culdesac Tempe is being billed by its developer, also called Culdesac, as “the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the U.S.” Residents who rent apartments at Culdesac Tempe must abide by clauses in their leases that prohibit them from parking a car anywhere within a quarter-mile of the community.

To sweeten the deal, Culdesac is offering a wide array of carrots to encourage residents to ditch car ownership. Included in the rent: complimentary Lyft Pink subscriptions, discounted fees for Bird scooters, an Envoy car-share membership and free unlimited Valley Metro transit passes. The development itself will have a plaza with scooter docks, car-share parking spaces and ride-hail pickup zones next to the light-rail station.

In addition, the 761-unit apartment community is designed to allow residents to access some basic everyday needs on foot: it will also have a grocery store, cafe and co-working space.

The community’s general manager, Lavanya Sunder, told CityLab that so far, tenants are eagerly chomping on the carrots. “We’re finding that most people moving in are not planning to keep their cars,” she said. “They don’t have a car now or are planning on selling it, partly because we will have this multitude of mobility options onsite.”

And while skeptics wonder whether Culdesac Tempe residents will be at a disadvantage getting around the rest of Metro Phoenix when they give up their cars, and the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many to worry about travel on public transit, another countervailing trend, the rise of remote work, appears to be increasing Culdesac’s appeal. As of last week, 33 leases have been signed for the 260 units slated to open between summer 2022 and spring 2023, and another 300 prospective tenants have put down $100 deposits to remain on the project’s waiting list. Rents start at $1,090 for studio apartments and $1,250 for one-bedroom units, figures well below the average monthly rent of $1,700 for apartments in Tempe, according to RENTCafé data.

New York State to Outlaw Sales of Gas-Powered Vehicles in 2035

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law a bill banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles in the state starting in 2035, CBS News reports.

With this law, New York becomes the second state in the country to commit to a “Vision Zero Emissions” policy for the sale of motor vehicles. California approved an identical 2035 ban last year.

The 2035 date allows time to ensure both an adequate supply of emission-free passenger cars and light-duty trucks and development of the infrastructure to support them. Several state agencies will work together to produce a zero-emissions vehicle market development strategy by 2023.

The bill also mimics California’s in calling for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and vans to be emission-free “where feasible” by 2045.

A statement released by the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom last fall said that if California reaches its goal, greenhouse-gas emissions will fall by 35 percent. In addition, oxides of nitrogen emanating from tailpipes will plunge 80 percent if the target is met.

E-Scooters for Packages, Coming to a Bike Lane Near You?

One way for both California and New York State to reach their ambitious targets is to change the way packages are delivered. Replacing delivery vans with emission-free vehicles would also reduce emissions significantly.

According to an article in Fast Company, a replacement may be in the works. Polestar, a builder of electric vehicles based in Sweden, is developing a three-wheeled cross between a scooter and a sled called Re:Move that’s designed to deliver packages.

According to the article, the “dirty little secret” in the package-delivery world is that cargo bikes deliver goods in cities 60 percent faster than vans do, in large part because of their superior maneuverability in traffic. An electric-powered cargo scooter would up the efficiency factor even more.

Especially if the scooter is narrow enough to operate in a bike lane. The Re:Move, which is only 2.5 feet wide, passes that test. Its operator stands at the back of the vehicle and steers its two front wheels with handlebars. The handlebars also control the throttle and brake, and the vehicle is designed to lean into turns.

The cargo platform can hold up to 400 pounds and the scooter has a top speed of 15 mph. Its battery is also 1/40th the size of an electric-car battery, meaning 40 Re:Moves could be equipped for the same investment as one Tesla.

Polestar, which is developing the Re:Move in collaboration with designer Konstantin Grcic, aluminum producer Hydro, and electric motorbike company Cake, has not committed to actually producing the cargo e-scooter. But it told Fast Company that it is continuing to invest in its development, and the company is seeking several patents on its work that it could use in future projects.