Paris (and other European cities) increase the number and size of pedestrian zones

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo banned cars from a large section of the River Seine’s quayside last autumn. Now, she’s going to push her pedestrianization measures even further. In autumn 2018, Paris will extend its car-free zone westward by a kilometre, install a guided bus line, and convert some space that’s currently used by cars into a two-way bike path. The openly declared objective: first to cut Paris’ car space by 50%, then ultimately rid central Paris of non-residents’ cars altogether.

These pedestrianisations are converting European cities into a more citizen-friendly places, where similar facts are on the agenda for some of the capital cities around the continent:

• Madrid will ban cars from its main street: Gran Vía will be car-free within three years (2020)

• Berlin's most famous street will go car-free: private cars will be banned from Unter den Linden in 2019

• London’s Oxford Street will ban cars, buses and taxis starting in 2020