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Why more cities across France are imposing 30 km/h speed limits

An increasing number of French cities are cutting speed limits to 30 km/h in a bid to encourage motorists out of their cars, save lives and -- according to advocates -- reduce pollution.

Why more cities across France are imposing 30 km/h speed limits
Photo: Dominique Faget / AFP

The southern city of Montpellier – which already has a large pedestrianised zone in its very centre – is the latest to join the increasingly popular 30 km/h club. The lower speed limit will apply on all but a few thoroughfares from Sunday, August 1st.

Speed limits have already been cut to 30kph in large parts of Grenoble, Lille and Nantes, while Paris is set to cut limits on many streets from August 30th

The association Ville 30, which campaigns for reduced speed limits in towns, lists some 219 towns and cities in Europe — many of them in France, as this interactive map below shows: 

Toulouse, Rodez and Blois are among those planning similar traffic-slowing measures.

Montpellier’s rules

The limit on a few key roads in Montpellier — such as Avenue de la Liberté, Avenue Pierre Mendès-France or even the RD65 — will remain at 50km/h, but most routes in the city will see speed limits fall.

Julie Frêche, vice-president in charge of mobility in the city told France 3: “This reduction has a direct consequence on the journey time. Going from 50 to 30 means 20% more travel time, so it may encourage people to use other means of getting around.”

“It will also be less profitable to use ‘rat runs’, where limits will be 30 km/h, rather than main routes which will remain at 50 km/h.”

Promoting other transport

Cities recognise that cutting speed limits does not work in isolation. They go hand-in-hand with other so-called ‘soft transport’ measures to reduce reliance on cars in heavily urban areas.

The measures in Montpellier were announced in February, when mayor Michaël Delafosse — making good on a campaign promise during the 2020 local elections — detailed his new community €150million mobility plan for the next 10 years which aims to cut car use and encourage other means of transport. 

As well as the reduction in speed limit, the plan includes new cycle lanes, new bus lanes, and improvements to the city’s tram services — including a new line set to open by 2025.

In 2019, Lille took a step-by-step approach to its speed limit reduction, adding new areas over a period of months, while also improving infrastructure for cyclists and public transport.

Opposition

Motorists’ organisations are, unsurprisingly, unimpressed. “I think it can be dangerous. Today, areas limited to 30 km/h are danger zones, such as schools for example,” Pierre Chasseray, of the lobby group 40 millions d’automobilistes, said in an interview with France 3 on the limit reduction in Montpellier. “When we arrive in these areas, we pay special attention to this change of speed. But if we generalise to 30 everywhere, people will inevitably be less attentive.”

But the disquiet of motoring groups appears to be falling on deaf ears in an increasing number of towns and cities across the country.

Environmental impact

It is difficult to know the impact the reduction in speed would have on improvements in air quality.

“The cycles of acceleration and deceleration are reduced, resulting in a reduction in fuel consumption and therefore air and noise pollution,” a press release from the city of Lille when limits were cut there in 2019, reads.

But Matthieu Chassignet, mobility expert at the Hauts-de-France regional agency of Ademe, said: “A 2014 study by Ademe showed that the drop in speed on expressways from 90 to 70 km/h reduced fuel consumption. But in town and going from 50 to 30 km/h, it is difficult to come to the same conclusion regarding fuel consumption; at 30 km/h, an engine consumes more but there is less ‘stop-and-go’, so in the end, that does not change too much.”

The greatest improvement would be in a reduction in traffic levels. Shortly after it introduced lower speed limits, Lille reported sizeable reductions in traffic levels on secondary roads in the city centre. Traffic had dropped 78 percent on rue Faidherbe, 75 percent in the secteur des gares, 30 percent on Rue Nationale and 25 percent on Rue de Gand.

Road safety concerns

The speed reduction cuts braking distances from 35m at 50 km/h on a dry road to 18m at 30km/h — or from 28m to 14m in cases of emergency braking.

“A person struck by a vehicle at 30 km/h has a 20 percent risk of dying, compared to 90 percent at 50 km / h. So it changes everything for road safety without really changing the journey times,” according to Olivier Schneider, president of the Fédération des usagers de la bicyclette (FUB).

National speed limit rules

In 2020, the Loi d’orientation des mobilités scrapped a nationwide reduction in speed limits from 90 km/h to 80 km/h on rural roads in favour of locally administered speed limits. 

The controversial national 80 km/h limit on rural roads had been imposed July 2018 — and quickly became a cause célèbre of the yellow vests movement.

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ENVIRONMENT

How French cities are getting people out of their cars

In an effort to get motorists out of their cars for environmental reasons, France and its cities are trying a number of different stick-and-carrot policies, from parking charges based on weight to free public transport. We look at the various schemes around the country

How French cities are getting people out of their cars

Pay by weight

A number of cities in France are watching the roll-out of new car parking rules in the south-eastern city of Lyon in 2024.

Currently, residents in the city pay a flat rate of €20 per month for an on-street parking permit. But the council has decided that, from next year, residential rates will range from €15 to €45, based on the weight of their vehicle.

Under the new rules, owners of an internal combustion car that weighs less than one tonne, or an electric car weighing less than 2.2 tonnes, will pay €15; for an internal combustion car weighing more than 1.725 tonnes, a plug-in hybrid weighing more than 1.9 tonnes or an electric car weighing more than 2.2 tonnes the price will be €45. 

For vehicles in the middle range for weight, the monthly price for permits will be €30.

READ ALSO French city to bring in parking charges based on car weight

Carshare lanes

An online consultation on reserving one lane of Paris’s notoriously congested Périphérique for car-sharing, taxis and buses was due to end on May 28th.

The results of that consultation should shape plans for the 35km ring-road beyond next year’s Olympic Games, when one lane will be reserved for athletes, officials and emergency responders.

Prolonging the scheme beyond 2024 as part of the games’ legacy would aim to “develop more virtuous and economical use of cars,” Belliard said.

Radars are already being tested that could detect whether a vehicle has multiple passengers and is therefore legally in the car sharing lane, he added — while insisting that the project remains “open to discussion”.

READ ALSO Paris weighs car-sharing lane for crucial ring road

Low-emission zones

France’s environment minister announced last year a major extension of ‘low-emission zones’ that will see certain types of vehicle effectively banned from numerous town and city centres by 2025. 

Those vehicles carrying a 4 and 5 Crit’Air sticker are then banned from these low-emission areas (usually the city centre) or limited to certain times. The exact details of the restrictions are up to local authorities, who have the power to extend the limits – for example Paris intends to also ban Crit’Air 3 vehicles by July 2023. Bordeaux plans to follow suit in 2025.

These zones already exist in 11 French cities – Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-Marseille, Nice, Toulon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Rouen and Reims – but by the end of 2025 they will be compulsory for any town that has more than 150,000 inhabitants. In total this will be around 40 towns and cities. In addition, local authorities in smaller towns can create ZFEs, if they want.

READ ALSO Car bans and €750 fines – how France’s new low-emission zones will work

Car-free zones

From next year, Paris plans to ban cars in an area taking in the first to the fourth arrondissements – the area that makes up much of the historic city centre that runs along the Seine and attracts the most tourists.

The plans were first announced in May 2021 and were set to come into effect in 2022, but have been pushed back to allow more time to implement the changes. 

An exact date for the introduction in 2024 has not been set, but Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said it will start at the beginning of 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympics, which will be held in July and August.

The plans as envisaged by City Hall don’t constitute a complete ban on all vehicles in the city centre, and there are many exceptions – including for people who live in the central zones to use cars, as well as allowances for delivery drivers, the disabled, taxis, VTC vehicles such as Uber, buses and car-sharing.

Bordeaux, meanwhile, extended the pedestrianised area of its city centre last November, to include part of the Chartrons district, increasing the size of the existing pedestrian area by 45 percent. The current car-free zone is some 58 hectares, and the plan is to increase it to 100 hectares in the next few years.

READ ALSO MAP: Where and when will Paris ban cars from the city centre?

Low-speed travel

An increasing number of French cities are cutting speed limits to 30km/h in a bid to encourage motorists out of their cars, save lives and – according to advocates – reduce pollution.

Cities recognise that cutting speed limits does not work in isolation. They go hand-in-hand with other so-called ‘soft transport’ measures to reduce reliance on cars in heavily urban areas.

In Montpellier a €150million 10-year mobility plan aims to cut car use and encourage other means of transport. 

As well as the reduction in speed limit, the plan includes new cycle lanes, new bus lanes, and improvements to the city’s tram services – including a new line set to open by 2025.

In 2019, Lille took a step-by-step approach to its speed limit reduction, adding new areas over a period of months, while also improving infrastructure for cyclists and public transport.

READ ALSO Why more cities across France are imposing 30 km/h speed limits

Cycle lanes

During the pandemic, more people were prompted to take up cycling as a means to escape the virus-spreading confines of public transport. In Paris, the rapidly expanding cycling path network was dubbed “corona-pistes”, as commuters shunned public transport for fear of infection.

Images of Paris as an example of how a city can switch transport focus to cycling are regularly trotted out on social media. But it’s not the only city to do this, as government-backed pro-cycling schemes are proliferating across the country.

READ ALSO How France will splash another €250 million on national ‘bike plan’

Free buses

More than 35 towns and cities across France – including Calais, Dunkirk Libourne, Niort, Aubagne, Gap, and Castres – offer permanent free bus travel on in-town routes. 

The idea is to ease congestion on the roads by increasing the number of journeys made by bus, and to reduce the environmental impact caused by cars.

Others – including Rouen, Nantes and Montpellier – run or have trialled free public transport on certain days, notably weekends.

And some have age-restricted free travel, allowing under-18s to travel without having to pay.

Public policy

It’s not just at a local level that France is trying to break the monopoly of car travel. Those commuting in and out of Paris, as well as tourists looking to enjoy a day at Disneyland, are familiar with the region’s extensive suburban train network (RER). According to French President Emmanuel Macron, it might soon be replicated in other French cities in the coming years.

In the latest in a series of short-videos answering constituents’ “ecological” questions, the President responded to the question “What are you doing to develop rail transport in France, and offer a real alternative to [travelling by] car?” by offering plans to duplicate Paris’ RER system in “the 10 main cities” in France.

Macron said that building suburban train networks in other cities would be “a great goal for ecology, the economy, and quality of life.”

He did not give a timeline, but the Elysée later told Le Figaro that the first step would be for “the orientation council for transport infrastructure” to identify which projects could be “launched first.”

READ ALSO Macron wants new suburban train network in France’s main cities

Advertising

Since 2022, car adverts have been obliged to carry messages that encourage more eco-friendly forms of transport such as cycling and public transport.

All car adverts now contain one of the following messages:

  • Pour les trajets courts, privilégiez la marche ou le vélo – For short journeys, prioritise walking or cycling
  • Pensez à covoiturer – Think about lift sharing 
  • Au quotidien, prenez les transports en commun – On a day-to-day basis, take public transport 

The messages must be clearly visible or audible, and failure to comply will lead to a €50,000 fine.  They must also mention the hashtag  #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer – which encourages people to choose less polluting forms of transport. 

Car manufacturers and advertisers will also have to mention which emissions class the advertised vehicle falls into.

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