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NYC’s congestion pricing has nothing on Paris’ war on cars
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Dec 20, 2024
Modified Dec 24, 2024
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Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu via Getty Images
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Dec 20, 2024
Modified Dec 24, 2024
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.
As the MTA prepares to launch congestion pricing next month, transportation officials in Paris are looking down on us (nous regardent de haut!)
Just last month, the French capital launched the Zone à Trafic Limité (ZTL), a central zone that doesn’t just toll motorists, but bans most private cars from entering the city’s first four arrondissements unless a driver can prove they're stopping at a destination, like a hotel or museum. The city fines any driver who even dares to travel through the zone without stopping up to 135 euros, or about $140. For now, the measure is just loosely enforced, but the Parisian police plan to crack down in the spring after a six-month “education” period.
Meanwhile, many drivers in and around New York City are up in arms over the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls, which starting Jan. 5 will impose a $9 daytime fee to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Paris’ congestion zone is about a fourth of the size of Manhattan’s — roughly 2 square miles compared to 8 — but both share similar goals of reducing gridlock and pollution in the densest parts of the city. (The MTA’s program also aims to finance $15 billion worth of transit upgrades.)
But while New York’s congestion pricing program marks the city’s first significant step toward reining in traffic, Paris’ ZTL plan is the latest in a 20-year push by the city’s Socialist Party mayors to turn street space previously reserved for cars over to pedestrians and cyclists.
The current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has made transportation one of her central policy issues since taking office in 2014. In 2021, Hidalgo announced a $290 million plan to boost cycling infrastructure across Paris.
Her predecessors widened bus lanes in 2001, opened a citywide tram system in 2006 and rolled out policies to reduce parking and lower road speed limits.
“They have multiplied the tools against cars but the fact is that car traffic is shrinking,” said Arnaud Passalacqua, an urban planning professor at the Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris.
Passalacqua said imposing a congestion toll in Paris would be even more unpopular than in New York, noting motorists in the city already pay hefty tolls and parking fees in other parts of the region. He argued it’s less controversial to outright ban cars from an area than to charge people to drive.
“In the public space, it’s absolutely not audible to speak about [a congestion toll],” he said.
Paris’ mass transit system is also in better shape than the New York City subway. The City of Light’s more modern train cars and cleaner stations are a more welcoming alternative to driving.
Hidalgo, the mayor, has routinely been called out for her sustainability policies that critics say mostly benefit wealthier Parisians living inside the city, compared to the working class beyond the Périphérique.
That echoes criticisms in New York, where residents in transit deserts like southeastern Queens and eastern Brooklyn gripe that the congestion pricing tolls are unfair because they don’t live near a subway that can take them into Manhattan.
While there may be differences between the all-out traffic ban and congestion pricing tolls, one thing's for certain: New Yorkers and Parisians are both world-class complainers.
Correction: This story was updated to reflect which drivers are allowed to enter Paris' limited traffic zone.
Curious Commuter
Have a question about subway cars (or literally anything else NYC-transit related)? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
But note that Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here.
Question from Lizándro in New Jersey
With the Port Authority redesigning the Midtown Bus Terminal, I wanted to know if there are plans to accommodate double-decker buses. I ride the NJ Transit MCI coach-style buses a lot and have always thought a low-floor double-decker would offer better ADA accessibility, more room onboard, and increased passenger capacity while taking up less space on the road than an articulated bus.
Sounds like someone’s traveled to London, where double-decker buses reign supreme (and also move faster than New York City’s due to more effective dedicated bus lanes). The Port Authority’s $10 billion plan to rebuild the decrepit Midtown bus terminal is tentatively moving forward — and representatives of the agency say the new space would indeed be able to accommodate double-decker buses, unlike the current facility. “That is one of the many features of the project that will enable it to address the problem of on-street parking, loading and off-loading by buses in the surrounding communities.” Don’t expect NJ Transit or other carriers that use the bus terminal to actually purchase double-decker buses until the project is fully funded, which is still a big question mark.
The latest NYC area transit headlines
Listen here:
- The MTA said it plans to order dozens more “open gangway” subway cars — and redeploy some of the ones currently in service over to the G line. Read more.
- The FDNY is celebrating a soon-to-be nationwide ban on the sale of unregulated lithium-ion batteries used in e-bikes and e-scooters. Read more.
- Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that 250 additional National Guard members will be deployed to patrol the city’s subway system, despite a drop in subway crime since March. Read more.
- After years of delay, the MTA is finally moving to overhaul the Queens bus network that largely runs along defunct trolley routes and has hardly changed since the 1950s. Read more.
- The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has decided not to pursue charges against a 58-year-old MTA bus driver who allegedly stabbed a passenger out of self-defense last week. Read more.
- Citi Bike said it’s expanding to Norwood and Riverdale in the Bronx, Brownsville and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, and areas west of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens in fall 2025. Read more.
- Hochul has asked Congress to crack down on drone usage after a small New York airport had to close its runways last Friday due to alleged drone activity. Read more.
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On The Way
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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