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Paris weighs car-sharing lane for crucial ring road

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Paris weighs car-sharing lane for crucial ring road
Vehicles as they move on Paris' ring road known as "Le peripherique" (Photo by THOMAS COEX / AFP)

Paris city hall plans to hold an online consultation in the coming weeks on reserving one lane of the French capital's notoriously congested ring road for car-sharing, taxis and buses.

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Deputy mayor for mobility David Belliard told AFP Wednesday that people from the surrounding Ile-de-France region as well as Paris residents will be asked to contribute from April 17th to May 28th.

City leaders want to "get the opinions of all stakeholders" and especially people opposed to the plan, he added.

One lane of the 35-kilometre Boulevard Peripherique -- known as the "periph" for short -- will be reserved during next year's  Olympic Games for athletes, officials and emergency responders.

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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 MORE: Why the Paris périphérique is more than just a ringroad

City hall, led by Socialist Anne Hidalgo, is likely to clash with conservative Ile-de-France regional president Valerie Pecresse over the plan.

Pecresse recently said it was "not possible to close one lane of the ring road given the traffic," people close to her told AFP.

Nine out of ten respondents to a 2021 online vote held by the regional government said they were opposed to "removing" a lane.

But the city hall says their plan would not "remove" but "transform" the space into "a faster lane" for less-polluting vehicles.

The regional government frequently recalls that of around one million vehicles using the peripherique every day, only 20 percent belong to Paris residents while 40 percent are travelling from one suburb to another.

Paris's proposed changes to road transport come as work continues on the Grand Paris Express, a sprawling extension of the underground network to cover more of the French capital region -- one of Europe's biggest urban areas with over 12 million people.

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