[sustran] AP fwd: French cities sponsor `Day Without Cars' to counter pollution

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

French cities sponsor `Day Without Cars' to counter pollution 

PARIS (AP) - Paris was quieter and the air at least seemed cleaner
Wednesday as tens 
of thousands of drivers heeded an appeal to keep their cars in the garage
to reduce 
air pollution. 

All too often these days, the Eiffel Tower is shrouded in smog, emergency
rooms are 
crowded with people suffering from bronchial distress and visitors go away
with 
memories of clogged streets and hazy skies. 

Though it is unclear whether the one-day effort - first held last year -
will cut 
smog significantly, environmentalists hope the ``Day Without Cars'' in
Paris and 65 
other French cities will force drivers to think about pollution and their
role in 
creating it. 

The effort to keep cars at home was voluntary and motorists were not fined
for 
ignoring the appeal, though police-guarded blockades were set up at some
points to 
discourage traffic. 

Only buses, taxis, emergency vehicles and motorcycles were supposed to
circulate in 
several central Paris neighborhoods. 

About 3 million cars enter the French capital daily, and the resulting smog
that 
engulfs the city causes health problems like asthma and chronic coughing, 
particularly among children and the elderly. 

The mayor's office estimated that the traffic in car-free zones on Wednesday 
afternoon was 59 percent less than on regular days. In all of Paris,
traffic was 
reduced by 31 percent, the mayor's office said. 

The Place de la Concorde, usually a whirlwind of cars and tour buses, was
strangely 
calm, with police directing only buses and pedestrians. 

``Traffic never moves this quickly,'' said Patrick Khimonier, 43, a taxi
driver 
observing the transformation in the famous square. ``Never,'' he added with 
finality. 

But in neighborhoods not blocked off, some streets were as congested as
usual. 

``Look at that, just look,'' said bus driver Patrick Mottaes, 44, pointing
to a row 
of vehicles at a standstill on a bridge in western Paris. ``The French are
just too 
attached to their cars.'' 

About 90 cities in Italy embraced the no-car effort as well. Rome and
several other 
cities offered free bus rides for the day to commuters who abandoned their
cars. 
They were enticed with claims that traffic would be speedy. But waits for
many 
routes in Rome were the same as on any other day. 

Suburban commuters make up a large part of Paris traffic, even though the
city has 
an extensive commuter train network. 

Still, it's not always easy to get from the suburbs to the capital, said
suburban 
mother Anne Lucas, 33, riding the Metro with her preschool-age daughter. 

``It's not safe at night, and if you have heavy packages, or if you have
your kids 
with you, it's just not worth it,'' said Mrs. Lucas. 

French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet said the car-free day was not
designed 
to punish drivers, but rather to force them to think. 

``The idea is to create a dynamic, to force people to think about their 
transportation habits,'' Voynet said in an interview published Wednesday in
the Le 
Parisien newspaper. 

Voynet and other government ministers rode bikes, tandems and electric
scooters to a 
Cabinet meeting Wednesday, despite light showers. 

Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be 
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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