Paris is Banning Older Vehicles From the City to Curb Pollution

Lawmakers in Paris are taking drastic steps to combat the city’s worsening air pollution. Starting next month, cars produced prior to 1997 will be banned from Paris during weekdays, but are allowed to operate in the city during weekends.

According to the French publication Le Monde, the law, which was passed in February 2015 and affects about 10 percent of the city’s vehicles, will likely expand in the future. But for now, anyone with older cars will have to find alternate means of transportation during the week or use a newer vehicle.

City authorities will enforce the new ban with six color chips that owners must affix to their vehicle’s windshield. Zero- and low-emission vehicles like battery-electrics and hydrogen cars will be classified under one color, while other vehicles will be assigned other color chips. The ban next month will also include two-wheeled rides manufactured before June 1, 1999.

The city has already placed restrictions on certain buses and large trucks and it plans to enact other measures to improve air quality. Low-emitters, for example, could gain special access to certain parts of the city that would otherwise be off limits to other vehicles.

As air quality worsens in big cities around the world, lawmakers are scrambling to find solutions to curb pollution. Beijing last year issued a days-long ban of vehicles in the city when air pollution reached the highest level ever recorded. Meanwhile, Oslo, Norway, is proposing to ban all cars from its city center by 2019 and continues to heavily incentivize electric vehicles.

Source: Le Monde

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