--- title: "Paris Says ‘Non’ to Traffic on the Champs-Elysées Once a Month" description: "Smog is breaking hearts in the City of Love. The mayor intends to stop it." date: "2016-04-28" modified: "2016-04-28" authors: - name: "Jonathon Ramsey" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/jonathon-ramsey" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/3237/paris-says-non-to-traffic-on-the-champs-elys-es-once-a-month" categories: - "News" tags: - "France" --- # Paris Says ‘Non’ to Traffic on the Champs-Elysées Once a Month ![]() *\www.thedrive.com\* Starting next month, Paris will [make the Champs-Elysées a car-free zone]() on the first Sunday of every month. The May commencement will actually come on May 8 instead of May 1 because the first day of that month is a national holiday, when [necessary council workers have the day off](). After that, though, one of the most famous stretches of road in the world will be denuded of vehicular traffic along its entire ten-lane, 1.2-mile stretch. The *grand boulevard*effort [joins the 13 routes currently traffic-restricted](), and nine new roads nominated for restrictions on a monthly basis. Paris has been experimenting with car-free days for nearly 20 years, clamping down on traffic for a few days in 1997, then holding its first *En ville, sans ma voiture* day – In the city without my car – [in September 1998](). Over the following years it would prohibit automobile traffic in certain portions of the city, like stretches of the road next to the Seine, once a month. But Paris’ hard line on automobiles turned as intense as its smog in 2014 when pollution made The City of Light look more like Beijing, the authorities [commenced alternative driving days]() for a spell, and socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo took office with a pledge to fight filthy air. The 2005 study conducted by the European Commission blamed fine-particle air pollution for roughly 40,000 premature deaths per year in the land of the Franks. A French Senate report figured the public health issues arising from air pollution cost the country €100 billion ($112 billion US) annually. Even though a 24-hour ban doesn’t provide lasting relief, these measures are widely seen as first steps in grooming the public for the kinds of blanket bans that are on the way – Mayor Hidalgo said, “[I want diesel cars out of Paris by 2020]().” The efforts have not come without a fight, pitting suburban rank-and-file citizenry [against “champagne socialists.]()" The battles will certainly continue this year; in [September 2015 the city put on a car-free day](), authorities plan to do it again with more curtailed areas this September, on top of plans to introduce permanently pedestrianized areas along the Seine. *Vive la perambulators*... ### Author social links