{"id":4,"date":"2007-02-13T14:19:14","date_gmt":"2007-02-13T14:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/?p=4"},"modified":"2008-02-05T13:20:56","modified_gmt":"2008-02-05T13:20:56","slug":"parisian-reluctance-over-congestion-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/2007\/02\/parisian-reluctance-over-congestion-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"Parisian Reluctance over Congestion Pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Translated, annotated and hyperlinked by Angus B. Grieve-Smith, February 13, 2007.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Mobility Plan for Paris<\/a> that will be debated [and adopted<\/a>] by Parisian elected officials on February 12 and 13 hinges on the proposals to close (partially at least) the Georges Pompidou expressway, to install a lane reserved for buses, taxis and emergency vehicles on the Boulevard P\u00e9riph\u00e9rique<\/a> [an eight-lane limited-access highway], and to limit automobile circulation in the center of Paris. However, there is no explicit mention of the implementation of \u201ccongestion pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n

London, Oslo, Stockholm and Singapore have all used this technique to limit access to their downtowns. Milan is expected to do the same in March 2007. In Paris the subject provokes, at this point, strong opposition. The suggestion of the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, on November 13, to \u201crequest input on\u201d the implementation of congestion pricing in Paris has met with unanimous opposition, even from the UMP<\/a> [his own center-right party].<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7oise de Panafieu<\/a>, conservative candidate for the next mayoral elections in the capital, has concluded that \u201ca toll at the gates of Paris would not be possible.\u201d Jean-Paul Huchon, Socialist president of the Ile de France<\/a> [the greater Paris region], has declared himself to be \u201cfirmly against\u201d the idea, arguing that it amounts to \u201ca national avoidance of responsibility,\u201d and \u201can admission of impotence\u201d in transit finance. Paris\u2019s Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delano\u00eb, has concluded that this plan would antagonize elected officials from nearby municipalities \u201cfrom the right and the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight days after the Prime Minister\u2019s speech, the Regional Infrastructure District of the Ile de France (Dreif<\/a>), in the context of its new management plan, published a study of traffic in the Ile de France, taking a position in support of a toll for entering Paris. For Francis Rol Tanguy, director of the Dreif, the idea \u201cshould no longer be taboo.\u201d The goal of the Dreif is to reduce automobile traffic and bring in funds to accelerate the rollout of mass transit across the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnically simple\u201d<\/h2>\n

Former cabinet director Jean-Claude Gayssot put forth two scenarios: a London-style system where a toll is charged to access the city center, or else converting to toll roads all of the highways within the A86 ring road. Under that plan the charge would only apply to expressways. \u201cThis system is technically simple to implement, thanks to the fiber optic network we have in place already,\u201d says Mr. Rol Tanguy. The toll, which could be applied to all vehicles or restricted to heavy trucks, would bring in 300 million euros a year, according to the Dreif.<\/p>\n

The Green deputy mayor in charge of transportation, Denis Baupin<\/a>, who has always expressed hostility towards the idea of charging a toll to enter the center of Paris, doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility of tolls on the expressways, especially for heavy vehicles. \u201cI am opposed to a London-style congestion charge, which I see as discriminatory,\u201d Mr. Baupin said, although he was \u201cfavorable\u201d to the idea of toll roads around paris, \u201cwhich would bring in money for mass transit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In France there are already toll facilities in urban areas: the Prado-Car\u00e9nage tunnel under the Old Port of Marseilles, the east-west ring road around Lyons, the A14 expressway between La D\u00e9fense and Orgeval in the Paris suburbs, and even the future A86 tunnel<\/a>, the biggest in Europe, between Rueil-Malmaison and Versailles, planned to open in October.<\/p>\n

Another difficulty is legislation. It is legal for the state [France] to impose a highway toll, but not a downtown congestion pricing zone. During the debate in 2003 over transferring the management of the national highways from the state to the d\u00e9partments<\/em> [local governments about the size of a county], the UMP deputy representing Lyons, Christian Philip, put forth a proposal supported by the majority of deputies in his party as well as the Socialist Party, that would have given local governments the right to impose tolls on intra-city travel in municipalities with more than 100,000 people. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was Prime Minister at the time, withdrew Mr. Philip\u2019s amendment in order to \u201cpreserve purchasing power.\u201d \u201cThe time was not ripe,\u201d argues Mr. Philip, \u201cfor a French implementation of congestion pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years later, the thinking has evolved. Congestion pricing trials in other countries have reduced traffic and improved mass transit, and these results have bolstered the determination of officials who favor the idea. To avoid accusations of discrimination against lower-income motorists, some defenders of zone pricing have suggested implementing an \u201cintermodal\u201d card, to be purchased by all residents whether they are transit riders or motorists, as an incentive to chose mass transit. The revenue, estimated at 150 million euros for a city like Lyons, would be used to make public transit more attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support the speedy implementation of congestion pricing in Paris,\u201d said Jean Sivardi\u00e8re, president of the National Federation of Transit Riders (Fnaut<\/a>), which argues that \u201cmotorists have an obligation to repay what they cost to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have parking meters, and congestion pricing is just the next step in urban traffic management,\u201d notes Yves Crozet, the director of the master\u2019s program in Transportation and Commercial and Industrial Logistics at the University of Lyons II. \u201cIt isn\u2019t so much that pollution problems are forcing us to implement tolls within cities,\u201d he points out, \u201cIt is more that they are requiring us, on penalty of asphyxiation, to place restrictions on people\u2019s movements.\u201d The road network, he continues, is currently one of the last holdouts against the free market, and congestion pricing would apply the user-pays principle<\/a> to it, just as it does to water or electricity.<\/a=http:><\/p>\n

Original : P\u00e9age urbain : les r\u00e9ticences parisiennes<\/a>, Dominique Buffier, Le Monde<\/em>, January 17, 2007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Translated, annotated and hyperlinked by Angus B. Grieve-Smith, February 13, 2007. The Mobility Plan for Paris that will be debated [and adopted] by Parisian elected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congestion-pricing","category-paris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}