You may remember older talks of banning cars in Paris for one day of the week, well, those didn’t go so well with the locals. Now, though, the city is completely shutting down traffic in the French capital for singular day-long event on September 27.
This will affect 11 out of the 20 arrondissements (sectors) that make up the city, the ones around the center.
The event is called “Une journée sans voiture,” which basically translates into “one day without car” and it’s been made part of the European Mobility Week (running September 16 – 22), plus there’s also a major UN conference on climate change in the city not long after (in November).
However, we can’t call this progressive thinking, since it’s a single day and Parisians refused to institute one day a week without cars before. Other places in the world are more advanced in having car-free days.
For instance, Montreal, Jakarta, Bogota, Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh City and the Belgian capital Brussels already have programs on the way. Some will be implemented permanently and recur periodically, while others are just testing out the idea.
Out of all the cities mentioned above, only the Colombian capital Bogota has instituted a serious program in this direction. Ever since the year 2000, it’s had what Wikipedia calls “the world’s largest car-free weekday event covering the entire city.”
Note: the video below is from September 22, 2014, but it wasn’t car free back then