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Paris Makes All Public Transportation Free In Battle Against 'Worst Air Pollution For 10 Years' (independent.co.uk)
Paris has barred some cars from its streets and has made public transportation free as it suffers from the worst and most prolonged winter pollution for at least 10 years, the Airparif agency said on Wednesday. The Independent reports: Authorities have said only drivers with odd-numbered registration plates can drive in the capital region on Wednesday. Drivers of even-numbered cars were given the same opportunity on Tuesday, but could now be fined up to 35 EUR if they are caught behind the wheel. More than 1,700 motorists were fined for violations on Tuesday. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said images of smog blanketing the capital were proof of the need to reduce vehicle use in the city center. The air pollution peak is due to the combination of emissions from vehicles and from domestic wood fires as well as near windless conditions which means pollutants have not been dispersed, the Airparif agency said. "This is a record period (of pollution) for the last 10 years," Karine Leger of AirParif told AFP by telephone. For more than a week, Airparif has published readings of PM10 at more than 80 micrograms per cubic meter of air particles, triggering the pollution alert. Along with odd-numbered cars, hybrid or electric vehicles as well as those carrying three or more people will be allowed to roam the roads. Foreign and emergency vehicles will be unaffected.
Avoiding some confusion in the comments, Paris is making all public transportation free for one or two days alone, to reduce the ammount of smog/particulate matter in the air. No, they are not making public transportation free indefinitely, this is an emergency measure... not all that different from similar stuff that China and India already did.
These are predicted to happen in several cities around the world in particular atmospheric conditions... if things keeps getting worse though, you can predict that soon, along with heavy snow days, we'll also have heavy smog days for some cities.
Allow service vehicles, public transportation, cabs and bicycles, and everyone will be happy.
This will be unpopular with North Americans (US and Canadians alike) who live their lives in cars, but in Europe we can conceive of an existence where you don't need to hop into a car every time you have to go from point A to point B.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
"Or need to get there faster. "
Get there faster in a car? Not in any European city.
When I worked in Paris, I lived in the suburbs surrounding Paris and worked in another one.
Public transport was easily 1h30m of traveling time. I would have to go through the town center and back. Share the train with all the people with the flu, suffer the unpredictability of the Parisian public transport.
In my car, it was a solid 20 minutes, and I never caught the flu. I was saving 2 hours everyday thanks to my car.
I'm not saying it's perfect for everyone, but for some people, it's definitely really great. Would I ever take the public transport again? Probably, if there were better routes around, not like this though.