The first step in the transformation into “urban boulevard” of the Parisian device, the most polluted space in the capital, a path reserved for shared mobility comes into force on Monday, a legacy of the Olympic Games carried by Anne Hidalgo, but disputed on the right.

Like Grenoble, Lille or Nantes, the Parisian device, where the speed has already been lowered from 70 km/h to 50 km/h, now reserves its most on the left traffic lane to vehicles that transport “at least two passengers”, excluding heavyweights, as well as public transport, taxis, emergency vehicles and reduced mobility vehicles.

“We want to reduce the number of cars in circulation by optimizing their filling rate in order to reduce noise and air pollution,” David Belliard, an ecologist assistant in charge of mobility, told AFP, recalling that 80% of peripheral users are self -colored.

“The device is the most popular urban motorway in Europe and it is a real health scandal. The half-million inhabitants who live on both sides of this urban highway are exposed to levels of pollution still far too high with 30% in addition to children,” recalls Dan LERT, environmental assistant in charge of ecological transition.

The track will be active as soon as panels with white diamonds on a blue background will be on, Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. As a precaution, the police prefecture can deactivate it in the event of significant traffic jams.

Some sections of the A1 motorway, north of Paris, and from A13 to the west are also concerned.

In the south, seven of the 35 kilometers separating the Quai d’Issy de la Porte de Bercy escape it, failing to have been “Olympic tracks” serving sites during the Olympic Games, but the city plans to invest seven million euros in dynamic signage and radar of forms to include them.

– Educational phase –

As of Monday, a first “educational” phase of control will make it possible to detect the offenders via “artificial intelligence”. They will then see a message displayed on the panels to ask them to change tracks.

The first tickets, in the amount of 135 euros, will fall from May 1, the municipal police being responsible for analyzing each video-verbalization photo before.

This experiment organized “without end date”, according to the town hall, will be the subject of a weekly publication of monitoring indicators (congestion, noise, pollution, carpooling), with intermediate assessments scheduled for September, December and March.

The Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, said on Wednesday that the experiment on the A1 and the A13 would also be assessed in September to “maintain or suspend the measure”.

With around 1.5 million daily trips, the peripheral boulevard is “the most polluted space in the capital”, which concentrates “2 to 2.5 times more ultrafine particles than on urban sites”, argues the city.

The executive also intends to amplify the positive effects observed since the lowering of maximum speed to 50 km/h on October 1.

According to the Paris Urban Planning Workshop, traffic jams decreased by 15%, accidents by 16%, the noise of 2.6 dB (a reduction of almost half), the pollution linked to nitrogen dioxide by 16%, with fine particles of 15%.

But experimentation arouses skepticism, even the anger of the opposition. In a letter addressed Thursday to Anne Hidalgo, the LR president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, repeats her fear of massive traffic jams in small crown.

“We must be able to stop this experiment so little consensual if its assessment is negative”, she pleads by claiming an “exhaustive within three months” assessment on “a extended perimeter to all the reporting routes”.

“80% of the people consulted were against and we denounce the lack of objective, exhaustive and precise impact study”, also criticism of Geoffroy Boulard (LR), co-president of Capital Union, first opposition group.

For its part, the city claims “pragmatism” and stresses that air pollution has already been reduced “40% in ten years thanks to an equivalent reduction in road traffic”. “Obviously you have to go much further,” insists Dan Lert.