NYC’s congestion pricing has nothing on Paris’ war on cars

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As the MTA prepares to launch congestion pricing next month, transportation officials in Paris are looking down on us (nous regardent de haut!)

Just last month, the French capital launched the Zone à Trafic Limité (ZTL), a central zone that doesn’t just toll motorists, but outright bans cars from entering the city’s first four arrondissements. The city fines any driver who even dares to cross into the zone up to 135 euros, or about $140. For now, the measure is just loosely enforced, but the Parisian police plan to crack down in the spring after a six-month “education” period.

Meanwhile, many drivers in and around New York City are up in arms over the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls, which starting Jan. 5 will impose a $9 daytime fee to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

Paris’ congestion zone is about a fourth of the size of Manhattan’s — roughly 2 square miles compared to 8 — but both share similar goals of reducing gridlock and pollution in the densest parts of the city. (The MTA’s program also aims to finance $15 billion worth of transit upgrades.)

But while New York’s congestion pricing program marks the city’s first significant step toward reining in traffic, Paris’ ZTL plan is the latest in a 20-year push by the city’s Socialist Party mayors to turn street space previously reserved for cars over to pedestrians and cyclists.

The current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has made transportation one of her central policy issues since taking office in 2014. In 2021, Hidalgo announced a $290 million plan to boost cycling infrastructure across Paris.

Her predecessors widened bus lanes in 2001, opened a citywide tram system in 2006 and rolled out policies to reduce parking and lower road speed limits.

“They have multiplied the tools against cars but the fact is that car traffic is shrinking,” said Arnaud Passalacqua, an urban planning professor at the Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris.

Passalacqua said imposing a congestion toll in Paris would be even more unpopular than in New York, noting motorists in the city already pay hefty tolls and parking fees in other parts of the region. He argued it’s less controversial to outright ban cars from an area than to charge people to drive.

“In the public space, it’s absolutely not audible to speak about [a congestion toll],” he said.

Paris’ mass transit system is also in better shape than the New York City subway. The City of Light’s more modern train cars and cleaner stations are a more welcoming alternative to driving.

Hidalgo, the mayor, has routinely been called out for her sustainability policies that critics say mostly benefit wealthier Parisians living inside the city, compared to the working class beyond the Périphérique.

That echoes criticisms in New York, where residents in transit deserts like southeastern Queens and eastern Brooklyn gripe that the congestion pricing tolls are unfair because they don’t live near a subway that can take them into Manhattan.

While there may be differences between the all-out traffic ban and congestion pricing tolls, one thing’s for certain: New Yorkers and Parisians are both world-class complainers.

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Question from Lizándro in New Jersey

With the Port Authority redesigning the Midtown Bus Terminal, I wanted to know if there are plans to accommodate double-decker buses. I ride the NJ Transit MCI coach-style buses a lot and have always thought a low-floor double-decker would offer better ADA accessibility, more room onboard, and increased passenger capacity while taking up less space on the road than an articulated bus.

Sounds like someone’s traveled to London, where double-decker buses reign supreme (and also move faster than New York City’s due to more effective dedicated bus lanes). The Port Authority’s $10 billion plan to rebuild the decrepit Midtown bus terminal is tentatively moving forward — and representatives of the agency say the new space would indeed be able to accommodate double-decker buses, unlike the current facility. “That is one of the many features of the project that will enable it to address the problem of on-street parking, loading and off-loading by buses in the surrounding communities.” Don’t expect NJ Transit or other carriers that use the bus terminal to actually purchase double-decker buses until the project is fully funded, which is still a big question mark.