Author | M. Martínez EuklidiadasFor years Paris has been an exemplary city in terms of mobility policies. Initiatives in favor of pedestrianization and public transport led to a drop from 44% to 35% in the use of private vehicles between 1999 and 2016. And that without taking into account the globally-acclaimed pedestrianization of the Seine in 2016. Now, the Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is planning a “15-minute Paris”.This new proposal by the Mayor, who has been in office since 2014, aims to convert Paris into a city in which nobody takes longer than 15 minutes to get to work or take their children to school. Under the name of La Ville Du Quart d’Heure (the quarter-hour city), the aim is to decarbonize the economy and make Paris a healthier city.
Cities of the future: Paris plans to become a 15-Minute City
Urban mobility is essential when it comes to facilitating the exchange of ideas and innovation. However, during the last century, we went from urban planning aimed at pedestrians and cyclists to a city designed for cars. Is there any way of going back to a sustainable and healthy model? Hidalgo believes this is possible, by prioritizing bike lanes and public transport.https://twitter.com/Anne_Hidalgo/status/1219580627172888577Despite today’s technology enabling people to work from home and work flexibility allowing people to move between cities and countries, the truth is that a large number of journeys to work still take one hour of travel time and are highly dependent on the carbon economy.Paris is not the only city in the world that collapses every morning when many parents are taking their children to school. Those that are not parents also block the roads, but this group is particularly interesting because it is the result of inadequate urban growth.For decades cities have supported parents being able to use their private vehicles to take their children to the school gates, which increases the intense traffic (cars searching for a place to park), urban noise, pollution and the consumption of fossil fuels. However, it also fosters segregation by economic level and encourages obesity.La Ville Du Quart D’Heure — A people-friendly city
Having an active life is essential in order to improve our overall health and that includes walking, moving. This is why Anne Hidalgo’s policy is to build a city intended for people, not cars. The truth is that commuting by car can have a negative impact on health, as demonstrated in the draw held in Peking to determine who could use their cars.
Converting streets into decarbonized mobility spaces
Until now, Hidalgo’s policies have proved to be highly efficient and effective. In 2019 alone, Paris managed to reduce car traffic by 8%. The city council’s new star measure is expected to reduce it even further.For Parisians, their health depends on it, since urban pollution is related to a whole host of diseases, and not just typical lung diseases, which are often mentioned. Since 2018, we know that a high exposure to urban pollution during pregnancy reduces the cognitive capacity of school-age children, and causes other diseases and deficiencies.Health studies illustrate that in cities such as Madrid, which we used as an example earlier, 39% of hospital admissions due to heart problems and 13% of breathing problems are directly related to traffic intensity. Cities such as San Sebastián, New York, Boston or New Orleans, have already begun mass pedestrianization.Pollution is also the reason why the British justice system has paralyzed plans to extend Heathrow airport,declaring it illegal, as it does not comply with the Paris Agreement of 2015 (COP21). It seems that cities are starting to move towards the Sustainable Development Goals.Turning streets into spaces of carbon-free mobility

Is it actually possible to transform Paris into this kind of sustainable city?
Despite certain opposition to the change, the truth is that Parisians are socially and environmentally responsible. Proof of this is that Anne Hidalgo has supported the same strategy for six years and to date all the proposals, even those that remove vehicles outside of certain areas, have been well-accepted.