Paris to ban older vehicles from the city

[GothingNC]

Wow, soon it will be illegal to drive an air-cooled 911 or VW in Paris :-(

I think automakers in the US would love this idea.

Paris ban on cars from before 1997



Starting July 1, the city of Paris will ban vehicles made before 1997 from the city center on weekdays, Le Monde reports. Additionally, motorcycles made before 2000 will also fall under this restriction, with the city planning to eventually disallow vehicles over 10 years old in all parts of the city on weekdays and weekends.

[jyl]

I'd prefer congestion pricing, as London is doing, to reduce the total number of cars in the city.

[Neilk]

Honestly, smelling the exhaust coming out of my 911, I am sometimes embarrassed by the pollution/smell my 911 emits. I prefer driving it on windy days that dissipates the fumes.

[Nickshu]

Well that's unfortunate. Seems pointless if the goal is smog reduction. I mean is the number of cars that age or older really significant?? Probably a small fraction of the smog contribution??

If they don't have an emissions testing program like we do here in the States I guess an outright ban is much cheaper than creating a government emissions testing program.

[jwasbury]

bureaucracy gone wild. Perhaps aside from emissions reduction, this is also an economic stimulus, forcing people to buy newer vehicles. I wonder if the motorcycle rules also includes scooters? There are a ton of them in Paris.

[Alexm930]

Originally Posted by jwasbury

bureaucracy gone wild. Perhaps aside from emissions reduction, this is also an economic stimulus, forcing people to buy newer vehicles. I wonder if the motorcycle rules also includes scooters? There are a ton of them in Paris.

You would think they would have bigger problems to worry about such as the pollution of blood running down the street gutters from all the dead bodies created by terrorists exercising their Sharia ways on the infidels.....

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Honestly, smelling the exhaust coming out of my 911, I am sometimes embarrassed by the pollution/smell my 911 emits. I prefer driving it on windy days that dissipates the fumes.

[island911]

Perhaps it's an effort to preserve the older cars. You know, all of the car-beques ( car-barbeques ... the ritual car torching culture there.)

[BE911SC]

Banned only on weekdays. You will still be able to drive your old 911 into the city on weekends but you won't want to because of the traffic. I go to Paris every year and rarely see older cars. I was surprised to see an early long-hood last time (dark blue with chrome stock steel wheels and hubcaps) but such sightings are rare in my experience.

Was doing some planning for my upcoming trip and came across this gem parked not far from the Arc de Triomphe:

[LakeCleElum]

Seems Racist - Poor people can't afford newer cars and many of the poor are minorities.

That was the thinking in liberal Seattle when they stopped impounding cars of drivers that had a suspended drivers license.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Honestly, smelling the exhaust coming out of my 911, I am sometimes embarrassed by the pollution/smell my 911 emits. I prefer driving it on windy days that dissipates the fumes.

Really?
One time when I went through an emission test, the tester told me that if I were to drive through a long tunnel, the air coming out of my tailpipe would be cleaner than the air going in...

[J-Mac]

There is a much higher % of diesel cars in France. That plays into the decision.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by J-Mac

There is a much higher % of diesel cars in France. That plays into the decision.

Bingo. Someone finally gets it.

Still seems really un-American but of course, they're not in America.

[Deschodt]

Also it's only on weekdays during work hours... You can keep your classic for the w/e fun.
It would affect a lot of daily driven Porsches, and would potentially depress the used car market for the affected models in the area. I think it's an unfortunate corollary of targeting basically old Peugeot diesels that soot up the walls of the city and just will not die (say what you will, those things are cockroaches). The law should have been more specific and/or required smog tests instead, maybe... But if you've seen the diesel soot encrusted walls of Paris and the contrast with freshly pressure washed buildings, it's hard to argue against... Like winter vs spring !

Between these pushes (London's congestion charge, Paris pollution, other countries special plates allowing city driving on specific days of the week), electric cars and self driving cars, I wonder when the cutoff will be for our cool oldies. At what point will it be more of a PITA to own them than to give up ? Might be sooner than one thinks... Right now early porsches are going bonkers in value, but I betcha at some point, between insurance pricing, government rules, automated driver safety record etc.... someone will make it too hard for us...

PS: my 72 MFI 911 practically puts me to sleep (not in a good way) from obnoxious smells when I stop at a light and my exhaust catches up with me. I felt so bad I'm having it retuned right now... It's not just diesels... Then again my SC passed CA smog for years without a gutted catalytic converter (I didn't know, came that way). There's a middle ground somewhere.

[widgeon13]

Can California be far behind?

[pwd72s]

At the risk of sending this to PARF, there is a powerful political segment out these that despises the automobile. This is world wide.

(edit) The root of the problem? Too much sex resulting in too many people. But I suppose that as long as sex is more popular than death, we're going to have an overpopulation problem.

[varmint]

über and Lift must be happy.

[BE911SC]

Paris is not a car crazy place. It's not Los Angeles. Parisians and the French in general do not see this as an attack on their civil rights. It's more of a hot-button issue here than it is over there.

[aigel]

Unlike most US cities, Paris has a functional public transportation system. I'd rather put a fork in my eye than commute in Paris, that's for sure. And the pleasure drive on the weekend (if there is such a thing in the city) is still open. Don't see how this is a big deal. German cities are already restricting city access by emissions - but they are nice enough to give a historic vehicle a pass (30+ year old qualifying cars).

G

[Won]

We moved to Germany a few months ago. I had no idea until then that they introduced environmental zones in most major city limits, which was phased in over a couple years and has now been at the most strict level for a while (Grüne Plakette, green sticker) . As far as I understand, petrol cars are generally allowed. Diesels, however, need a DPF fitted (factory or approved retrofit) in order to qualify. All Euro 4 and newer cars come with a DPF standard, and therefore allowed. There are some exceptions with late E46's and Mk4 VW's which also qualify from the factory without a DPF.

Someone already mentioned people potentially not being able to afford cars newer than the cutoff. I've been looking at a cheap diesel and anything that is affordable, which also has the "green sticker", gets sold within hours, maybe a couple days tops. Conversely, there are a lot of slightly older but cool 200hp diesels like early E46 or E39, which can only be used "in the countryside" and therefore don't get sold due to the limited market.

They are now talking about increasing the minimum to Euro 6, which not even some new cars sold in 2015 qualify. Realistically, this is probably too much of a step considering most diesel cars currently on the road will not be allowed in the cities, possibly they may limit it to the core areas of cities. In a way, it's quite ridiculous that the government decides that your car will be obsolete in 2 years' time when the phase-in is done, but on the other hand everyone (ok everyone living in cities) in Germany went through and they survived. As expected, they were being sensible and make "oldtimers" with historic plates exempt from the emission regulations, so our 911's are safe - for now. As said above, it's a trend that's only going to get "worse" all over the world. I personally think it's the right direction and wouldn't cry when the day comes that my 911 is forced off the road - hopefully I'll be driving a cool, sporty and affordable electric/hydrogen/cow fart-powered car by then

Edit: George beat me to it