In a bold and understandably unpopular move this week, the City of Paris banned half its motorists from driving their cars and motorcycles on Monday and Tuesday after a series of warm days and cold nights caused the city's worst pollution levels since 2007, BBC News reports.
Part of a scheme to reduce the number of vehicles on the road — and the resulting pollution — only motorists with odd-numbered number plates were allowed to drive on Monday, and only those with even-numbered plates could travel on Tuesday. Prior to the restrictions, Parisians were given free travel on buses, metros and public bikes over the weekend.
While many Parisians showed they were willing to face the 22-euro ($30 USD) fine rather than cancel their commutes, most complied with the restrictions. BBC News reports that most cars on the road were odd- and even-numbered on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, and traffic seemed lighter than usual.
There were exceptions for taxis, commercial electric and hybrid vehicles and for cars carrying three or more passengers.
Roughly 700 police ran nearly 180 control points around the Paris region, handing out tickets to offenders. Police ticketed nearly 4,000 people by midday on Monday, and 27 drivers had their cars impounded for refusing to cooperate with officers.
The scheme seems to be helping — along with improvements in weather conditions, air quality also is on the mend. The city implemented the same plan to combat pollution in 1997. Paris air quality-monitoring body Airparif says it had a noticeable impact on improving air quality, although some critics have disputed its findings.
Delivery companies particularly disliked the restrictions, and it is likely that the scheme will influence the outcome of the city’s mayoral election next week.
While it is easy to focus on the direct negative economic impacts from schemes such as this, environmental issues such as air pollution can have an even larger cost in the long run. Last year, the TEEB for Business Coalition released a study that found the global top 100 environmental externalities are costing the global economy some $4.7 trillion a year in terms of the economic costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, loss of natural resources, loss of nature-based services such as carbon storage by forests, climate change and air pollution-related health costs.
Meanwhile, hydrogen fuel cell cars are emerging as great alternatives to traditional gas-powered vehicles. Hydrogen cars have more than three times the standard range of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs), can be refueled in minutes rather than hours and look and handle more like traditional cars. However, a current lack of hydrogen refueling stations is preventing widespread adoption.