HN Reader

Worth noting that 50-60% of passenger cars in France are diesel, but Paris have been gradually banning older higher emission diesels (Crit’air 3, 4, 5) from Paris. Banning cars outright also works, of course, but I suspect a lot of the reduction can be attributed to getting particularly bad diesel cars out vs. the limited areas where cars are entirely restricted.

Those are some really awesome changes. If only we could get more of that for cities in the US.

How much of this has to do with the policies highlighted - removing 50k parking spots, adding bike lanes and green spaces - and how much has to do with cars having better exhaust?

How much less cars are on the road today vs then?

The charts and title make it look like there's no cars in Paris anymore. That's not the case, at all.

Barely even mentions the noise. Cities aren't loud but cars are. Paris 2025 vs 1995 soundscapes very different.

Remember when Covid hit, and no one was going anywhere (in a plane or a car), and the skies were crystal clear everywhere.

Don't have to ban cars - the UK has adopted a speed limit of 20/30 mph in cities and I'm sure it helps. Surely helps with the noise and the safety

It makes sense now why they burn cars every protest (besides being fun). Pollution for a day, clean air for a lifetime

There's still a lot of cars driving in Paris. And motor scooters.

Since then, many city have enforced the same kind of rule where polluting car are banned from center of town.

2 week ago, deputies were discussing the global ban of 'car free town center' because it doesn't really work and it exclude part of the society...

https://www.lefigaro.fr/automobile/zfe-50-deputes-defendent-...

Honestly, kind of amazing to see a big city actually pull it off. So many places talk about reducing car dependence and improving air quality, but Paris really committed - and the data speaks for itself. Of course, the pushback from drivers was inevitable (it always is), but it's hard to argue with 55% less PM2.5 and cleaner skies over the Eiffel Tower. That's not just good urban policy - that's public health in action.

Great that they have made parking more expensive for heavy and huge cars. My city here offers parking free of charge for EVs, but note they are heavy, have wide tires and cost parking space. Whats the tradeoff then? Its wasting electric energy to move such a pile of metal for one person. I critisized that in the forum of our local newspaper, my comment got deleted....

it’s always shocked me how diesel reliant Europe is, smells absolutely terrible coming from the states

This just makes me think about how absurd it is that left wing people are lately seeming more anti-EV, and picking up oil industry talking points on EVs.

Are there any dataset that monitor average NO2 pollution of cities over time? CAMS released one[1], but it's not updated any more.

[1] https://github.com/CopernicusAtmosphere/air-quality-covid19-...

"Ban all the cars" does have noticeable effects.

I wonder if something less all / none might have nearly the same effects with far less drawbacks otherwise.

E.G. What if only emissions testing certified low emission vehicles were allowed? What if only electric? How about requiring quiet utility trucks for garbage / freight / etc?

For cities that large / dense, adding in Caves of Steel like people-mover belts might be a great alternative too.

.

This article is so full of bullshit!

Car are still a lot in Paris and there are conflicting studies about the air quality evolution in Paris, some days it is better, some days not. But the Parisian regulation on car as no real effect so far.

Paris is like at a bottom of a curve and it is said that the car might account only for less than 20% of it, the biggest contributor being industry in the region.

What had a big impact on thin particules are the evolution of car technologies. Now every engine in France has to be equiped with efficient catalytic exhaust pipes and efficient engine to reduce this kind of bad particules.

In this article, you can see a very deceptive image comparison. There is a picture of the Eiffel tower long time ago and now.

The picture of before has a strong fog, but it is just because being taken on a foggy day but the article would like you to think that it is how a picture would have been everyday due to the popultof the air...

Airparif is an NGO run by environmentalists and funded by the EU, not sure how independent they are?

"Energy consumption fell substantially as Paris started killing one in two pedestrians."

A win-win situation.

Cars in cities, let alone designing cities around cars, is one of the greatest tragedies of modern life.