Car ban hits drivers in polluted Paris

The French government has imposed a ban on driving cars in Paris to help reduce the growing pollution problem in the country’s capital that’s spiralling out of control.

From today, Monday 17 March 2014, drivers with ‘odd’ and ‘even’ registration plates will only be allowed to drive in the city every other day respectively. This could cut the amount of traffic in the city by half overnight - although reports suggest many drivers plan to flout the rules and swallow the 22-euro fine for breaking the new regulations.

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Schemes like this have been employed in other cities over the years

French ministers imposed the ban – which has been mooted for a while, following plans to prohibit classic cars from the city – after a five-day period during which pollution levels exceeded safe levels in Paris and the surrounding area, sometimes by more than double.

While Paris is the most recent major European city to enforce such drastic regulations, at MSN Cars we’re asking: could similar plans be made law in the UK?

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At the moment, there are no proposals to introduce a driving ban in any city across the UK, although pollution is still a major problem in London.

There’s already a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) that surrounds the capital, introduced in 2008 to "encourage the most polluting vehicles driving in London to become cleaner."

Covering most of the Greater London area, if your vehicle doesn’t meet required safe pollution levels, you have to pay to drive within the LEZ, much like the way drivers must pay the London congestion charge.

While billed as a levy intended to reduce the amount of traffic in the city centre, many people believe the CO2 emissions-based congestion charge is actually an efficiency tax.

On top of these two initiatives, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, last year revealed plans for an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in the capital.

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Arguably a more pragmatic approach to pollution than that being enforced in Paris from today, the ULEZ scheme’s aim is for every vehicle driving in London during working hours to emit zero or extremely low CO2 emissions by 2020.

The EU has plans to ban cars from cities altogether by 2050

According to Johnson, the vision "where almost all the vehicles running during working hours are either zero or low emission would deliver incredible benefits in air quality and stimulate the delivery and mass use of low-emission technology."

It seems that, for the foreseeable future at least, the UK and London in particular will avoid a driving ban to reduce pollution – but don’t rule it out altogether at some point further down the line.

There are other cities in Europe that have placed laws on cars to control emissions, such as Turin and Florence in Italy, but Paris is the most recent major European city to enforce restrictions to this degree by actually banning the driving of some cars altogether on certain days.

Other major urban centres across the globe have had driving limitations in place for years now too, in a bid to combat smog.

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The Clean Air Act in the US city of Los Angeles has been in operation since as far back as 1963. The part of the statute that governs "Emission Standards for Moving Sources" has evolved as vehicles have become more efficient, but teamed with the California Clean Fuels Program today, it’s having an effect on harmful vehicle emissions and improving air quality in the process.

The Japanese capital, Tokyo, is much the same, with domestic manufacturers transforming their affordable crop of small ‘kei’ cars into efficiency-focused vehicles back in the 1970s to meet ever-tightening emissions restrictions.

Recent pollution levels in Paris actually reached similar levels to those recorded in smog-covered Beijing, in China – a city that also restricted its motorists to driving on alternate days depending on their number plate back in October last year, after a "red air pollution alert" was issued.

According to the European Union, bans on driving cars in cities altogether will become increasingly common over the next 35 years.

The EU has plans to ban cars from cities – including London and other urban areas in the UK – by 2050, cutting overall CO2 emissions by 60%.

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The French authorities have granted exceptions to hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as cars carrying three or more people. However, although automatic number plate recognition cameras and police will be monitoring traffic, initial surveys show Paris residents are unperturbed by the proposal of a 22-euro (£18) fine for driving on the wrong day.

Manufacturers will be forced to reduce new vehicle emissions

Although public transport was made free over the previous three days and will continue to carry no cost on the first day of the ban, it’s thought many French motorists will ignore the new rules.

Initiatives such as the one employed in Paris from today have been used elsewhere in the past, including in Milan, Italy, in the early 90s.

However, the strategy there proved unsuccessful as drivers ignored the rules, borrowed friends’ cars for the right day and even splashed out on a second, less economical vehicle (somewhat defeating the point of the exercise) to avoid the legislation.

AP

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By Sean Carson, contributor, MSN Cars