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Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

cnn.com

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Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#61

Post by cguess »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #41

Slightly off-topic but NYC went through a similar process when congestion pricing met legal battle after legal battle. Long to short, there was a calculated effort to make midtown less and less vehicle-friendly. The "hack" was to take streets / aves and repurpose those for pedestrians. Special walking lanes, more "park cafes", bike lanes, etc. None were stated as being anti-vehicle - as that would open up legal chall…

And it worked, there's multiple studies showing that retail business in the neighborhoods that limited car accessibility is up while pollution and noise is down and for those who choose to drive into the city, parking is easier.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#62

Post by goldenarm »

vovavili wrote: post #37
goldenarm wrote: post #20

I moved from LA to Paris, my mental and physical health improved dramatically. I don't even take the subway, walking and biking are enough where I live. Hopefully we can reach the comfort of dutch cities within a decade.

I was more comfortable living in Paris than living in a Dutch city because I was able to live in a banlieue. Biking here is more developed, and that's a plus. But having my job, my living space, my friends and my favorite weekend activities spread across Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague does take a bit of a toll. I wish The Netherlands did have a much less restrictive housing policy.

Interesting ! My comparison was indeed limited, I only lived in center of Den Haag as a foreigner. Decentralization has its pros and cons, but Paris is way too centralized around Chatelet sometimes.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#63

Post by dwg465 »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #2

This article has such a weird framing. It keeps repeating how the cleaner air is so good for tourists. But tourists visiting Paris for a week don’t get the majority of the benefit from cleaner air. The Parisian residents living there throughout the year do. Maybe because it’s CNN, an American outlet, they’re focused on the “tourist”, but these benefits have mostly accrued to Parisians. Also, the 4% increase in traffi…

I mean it’s a “CNN Travel” article…of course it’s going to focus on Paris as a travel destination.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#64

Post by dopidopHN2 »

youknownothing wrote: post #49

[flagged]

As a resident of this city. The clean air is one thing. EV could give us that and offset the pollution where the batteries are made and recycle.

But the main gain, as someone paying taxes there: is the reclaim of public space for human to enjoy.

Its a cliché to say that Paris is pretty and its so much more enjoyable on a stroll along the bank of the seine that on a freeway at 20 miles/h. ( that freeway was permajamed )

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#67

Post by vel0city »

curtisblaine wrote: post #26
troupo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a helpful comparison https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/opel-astra-1998-cou...

Not so helpful; the cars are from two different generations at two different price points. Try https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/bentley-flying-spur...

You're calling out different price points while then choosing a $200k car. Which, you picked that car because it's an exceptionally long sedan.

How about we choose a different SUV?

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/bentley-flying-spur...

I see far more suburbans on the road than all models of Bentley.

People aren't choosing SUVs because they're smaller than sedans. They're choosing them because they're bigger.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#68

Post by TimK65 »

the_biot wrote: post #50
tikhonj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the changes in the comment make owning a car impossible, they just make driving marginally less privileged over walking and biking.

No, it's worse than that. The city council very much implemented an anti-car (harassment) policy, to the point that car owners felt hounded by their own council's policies. It seriously wasn't a matter of "marginally less privileged".

Motorists are incredibly fragile. I'm glad Paris has had a mayor who could stand up to their entitled whinging.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#69

Post by tantivy »

delichon wrote: post #13

In an American city I would bet on the mobility impaired people to win the cage match against the fewer cars people. They are tougher than they look. Edit: The responses reasonably talk about the officially mobility impaired people. I was thinking more about the unofficially mobility impaired people by obesity, like me. French obesity rates are ~16% compared to ~42% in the US. That contributes to a fierce US constitu…

Cars are enclosed sofas that move around. Could car dominance be contributing to obesity?

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#70

Post by alistairSH »

jstummbillig wrote: post #38
iamkonstantin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s no easy task to reform a city away from being car-centric. In my home town of Ghent (in Belgium), we’ve had several iterations of a traffic plan that gradually reduces the number of parking spaces, rises taxes and car related costs, makes streets one way or deprioritises cars (e.g. a car doesn’t have priority over a bike anymore) etc. It’s not easy but the city today is a lot more liveable than it was wh…

Honest question: What is the hard part? If you took all of that stuff and did it as quickly as you could somewhere else, what's would be the biggest issue? People + resistance to change of any kind? The outcome seems so obviously good. I have never heard of anyone complaining about a city becoming less car centric, but maybe somehow it's an under-represented story?

Effectively NIMBYism, but for cars. The political backlash would stop all progress. People don’t like change, even for the better.
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