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MOTORISTS

Paris to hand Right Bank to pedestrians in 2016

The Mayor of Paris has announced decisive plans to close down and pedestrianize a highway on the banks of the River Seine by next summer, as well as to open a new cross-city tramway.

Published: 19 October 2015 12:06 CEST
Paris to hand Right Bank to pedestrians in 2016
The right bank of the River Seine could look like this in the future. Image: Luxigon
Mayor Anne Hidalgo's plan to reclaim the Right Bank of the River Seine for pedestrians should come into fruition by the end of summer next year, she said on Sunday.
 
In an exclusive interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, she said that the 3.3-kilometre stretch of the road that runs from the Quai des Tuileries in first arrondissement to the Port de L'Arsenal in the fourth would be “closed permanently” to traffic at the end of the summer.  
 
 
(Image: Luxigon)
 
(Image: Luxigon)
 
A back-up option could see a shorter part of the road closed off instead, between Place du Chatelet and Pont de Sully.
 
The longer roadway, which currently serves up to 2,700 cars per hour in peak times, will become a 4.5-hectare hotspot for walkers and pétanque players, and will feature a floating marketplace thanks to boats moored along the river.
 
“This will profoundly change the face and image of our city,” she told the paper. 
 
The tunnel at the western side of the road may even be transformed into a nightclub, she added.
 
In the tweet below, the mayor notes that the area will be a “new breathing place for walking and relaxing”. 
 
 
Hidalgo also unveiled plans to introduce a tramway in 2020 along the Rue de Rivoli, a heavily trafficked shopping street parallel to the roadway further north. It will connect the east and west of Paris, she said.
 
The mayor noted that 57 percent of the public is in favour of the €8 million Right Bank plan, which was first announced in May this year, and which she plans to roll out directly after the annual Paris Plages event, where part of the river bank is turned into a temporary beach.

 

(Image: Luxigon)
 
While further details are set to be discussed at a Paris council meeting in mid-November, the plan has already seen some opposition.
 
Motorist groups have noted that getting rid of the roadway could triple the times of short journeys across Paris, and could even see extra pollution and noise for local residents due to additional traffic congestion. 
 
French drivers' organization 40 Million d'Automobilistes has even launched a petition against the plan. 
 
Hidalgo swept away the groups' concerns, noting that while the decision “may seem radical, it's a public health issue”.
 
The mayor has long been an active supporter of cutting back on traffic in the French capital, most recently pulling off a “day without cars” in September, a move she has shown interest in implementing each month.
 

(Traffic on the Right Bank, Photo: AFP)
 
Opening up a river bank to walkers has already proved successful in Paris, after Hidalgo's predecessor Bertrand Delanoë closed the highway along the left bank has been deemed a success, even if it angered motorist groups.
 
The concept has also proved successful in Lyon and Bordeaux. 
 

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PARIS

Paris to drive cars off River Seine’s right bank

With the left bank of the River Seine safely in the hands of pedestrians, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo now wants to take away the right bank from the city’s cars.

Published: 6 May 2015 08:48 CEST
Paris to drive cars off River Seine's right bank
The right bank of the River Seine could look like this in the future. Image: Luxigon

The mayor of Paris’s war on automobiles looks set to continue apace.

On Tuesday Anne Hidalgo launched her plan to turn the right bank of the River Seine into the city’s latest pedestrian zone.

It follows a similar move by her predecessor Bertrand Delanoë, whose flagship scheme to close the highway along the left bank has been deemed a success even if it angered motorist groups.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday Anne Hidalgo said: “It’s an urban project, almost philosophical, which is to envisage a city in an alternative way than through the use of cars.”

Hidalgo pointed to the work done in cities like Lyon and Bordeaux, which have been lauded for reclaiming parts of the river banks for pedestrians.

“The transformation of an urban highway into a promenade will be very strong marker of this mandate,” she added.

 

Hidalgo, who vowed to reduce traffic in the city, said the Georges-Pompidou highway on the right bank of the Seine – part of a Unesco World Heritage Site, will be permanently handed over to pedestrians after the annual Paris Plage festival in 2016.

As a result the 2,700 vehicles that pass along the highway each hour at peak times, will be moved elsewhere and their place will be taken by riverside gardens, games areas and people out for a stroll.

A period of public consultation will now begin over exactly how much of the river bank highway will be closed off to traffic.

Two options are on the table: Reclaiming the portion of highway that runs between the Pont de Sully and Châtelet or the more ambitious project of transforming the much longer stretch between Tuileries Tunnel and Port de L’Arsenal.

Motorist group 40 Million Motorists are opposed to the scheme and have set up an online petition.

 

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