Lifestyle / Travel

Champs-Elysees Goes Car-Free Monthly

French authorities battle the worsening smog conditions with monthly pedestrian-only day.

Apr 26, 2016 | By Shatricia Nair

The Avenue des Champs-ƉlysĆ©es, one of Parisā€™ busiest boulevards and home to the Arc de Triomphe, will soon be off-limits to cars once a month in an effort to eradicate worsening smog conditions. If you aim to cruise in style in your supercar or block traffic with your Rolls-Royce or Bentley take note of the following dates.

Cars will be not be allowed on the busy two kilometer-long (1.2-mile) street on the first Sunday of every month, coinciding with the day Parisian museums are free to public. The eco-friendly scheme will kickstart on 8 May 2016 instead of 1 May, a public holiday, when many of the council workers needed to run the scheme will be off work.

Mayor Anne Hildalgo, a socialist whoā€™s been actively fighting the smog, will also include nine new routes to be pedestrianised every Sunday and public holiday. This adds to the 13 thatā€™s already subject to traffic restrictions under the ā€œParis Respireā€ anti-pollution programme, a car-free scheme where selected roads are closed to traffic on the above mentioned days between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

According to the World Health Organisation, fine-particle pollution claims an alarming 42,000 lives prematurely in France every year.


 
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