Paris Mayor: I want a city with less cars. Perhaps it's controversial, but I think I'm on the right side of history. I had lobbyists from car companies threaten me in my own office.

Anne Hidalgo dit avoir été "menacée dans son bureau" par des lobbies automobiles

"They told me that if I do not back down, they will fight to defeat me"

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Cars ruin cities, Paris has many beautiful areas which would only be enhanced by this.

Paris without cars would be incredible. Paris with cars is still terrific, but it could be terrific-er. Good on her.

https://archive.is/29uTN
Airparif, an independent group that tracks air quality for France’s capital region, said this week that levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) have decreased 55 percent since 2005, while nitrogen dioxide levels have fallen 50 percent. It attributed this to “regulations and public policies,” including steps to limit traffic and ban the most polluting vehicles.
This would make for such a pleasant city. My downtown core is purely car-centric and it's terrible to visit. Everything smells like exhaust, people are honking and yelling at each other, it's tedious and dangerous to cross the congested streets, and our air quality is terrible to the point of being unsafe for pets and vulnerable groups. Even the plants look like shit because they're so polluted.

Next year is a mayoral election year, so all this feels like political posturing to me. I don't doubt that the "diesel lobby" wasn't pleased with her changes, but the way she tells it smells like victimization. Also having a car-less approach to running a city is not exactly controversial in the year of our lord 2025. There are a lot of cities that pioneered car-less city design before she got into office ( altough in her defense, this kind of change may be harder to implement in extra large metropolitan areas like Paris ). Oh, and another thing: she's been in office 11 years and traffic-wise the city hasn't changed much outside the central touristy areas. You'd think she could've done a lot more in that kind of time. I go through the city every now and then and I feel the only thing that changed is the growing number of trikes and motorcycles on the periferiques. Maybe someone from Paris can chime in on her actual accomplishments?
- Also having a car-less approach to running a city is not exactly controversial in the year of our lord 2025.
  Maybe in Europe, but in North America that'd be controversial. In some parts of the United States, that would be seen as treasonous. I wish I was kidding.

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