Paris to lower speed limit on ring road in drive to reduce pollution

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00:00Drivers on the French capital's crucial ring road will have to take their foot off the

00:04pedal just a little bit as Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo moves to cut the speed limit from

00:1070km per hour to 50km per hour.

00:14The decision has triggered outrage among opponents who say Hidalgo's plans were decided unilaterally,

00:21while the new speed limits will be enforced gradually from the 1st of October.

00:27Let's get more on this story and cross over to Ariane Bousquet, a PhD student in economics

00:31at the University of Paris-Saclay.

00:35Thank you so much for joining us on the programme.

00:38You of course focus particularly on the influence of environmental policies on the automobile

00:43market.

00:45So Mayor Hidalgo has been big on this push to make Paris more green.

00:51Is cutting the speed limit to 50km actually going to have that effect, do you think?

00:58Yes, good evening.

00:59So yeah, the key question to understand, I think, is to understand how it will impact

01:06the factors that are responsible for air pollution.

01:11So this is the target of the policy, but these factors are diverse, so there's the number

01:17of vehicles on the road, there's the vehicle type.

01:20So for example, the vehicle age, the fuel type, the consumption, and there's also the

01:25case of congestion.

01:27So congestion, why?

01:29Because it creates sudden slowing down and accelerations.

01:34And so the presence of congestion creates many pollutants.

01:38So there's not a clear answer to your question, obviously, because while the policy might

01:47impact several of these factors, at least two, it might impact congestion, so it might

01:54actually reduce congestion.

01:56So I say could, because there's no specific study for the reduction from 70km per hour

02:06to 50km per hour.

02:08So we do not have a specific study that tells us that for this particular change, it will

02:13reduce congestion and therefore it will reduce air pollution.

02:18Instead, most of the literature focuses on highways and fast roads, and they agree that

02:26for this type of roads and this type of rapid roads, reducing the speed limit will help

02:33actually reduce congestion.

02:35And so since it reduces congestion, it will reduce air pollution.

02:40But there's not a consensus for less rapid roads and for this specific speed limit.

02:48So I cannot say for sure.

02:51Okay, Ariane, but let us talk us through what you feel are the most concrete effects that

02:58this new decision will have.

03:03Well, it might have an indirect effect on the number of cars on the roads, because this

03:12limit could make cars less attractive for drivers.

03:18And so it could reduce demand in the short term, but it could also encourage people to

03:24shift to other transport modes.

03:27But this is interesting, but this also brings the question of equity, obviously, because

03:33not everyone can shift to public transport, for example.

03:37So in my research, I'm very interested in equity issues of policies.

03:43And we know that on the ring road around Paris, there's one third of people that go from suburbs

03:50to suburbs.

03:51And so this might be difficult for them, because we know that for this kind of trips, it's

03:57particularly difficult to take the train, for example.

04:00There's not a lot of public transport for this type of trips.

04:04And so these people, so one third of people that use the ring road might not be able to

04:09shift to public transport.

04:11And so they might suffer the most from the policy.

04:14So I think, yeah, the equity impacts are important to address before implementing the policy.

04:20Okay, well, I want to go back to the environmental effects again.

04:25What measures should be taken to tackle air and urban pollution in big cities, do you

04:31think?

04:32Well, the speed limit is an idea.

04:36And there's already restrictions on peak pollution days that are quite effective.

04:42But there's several other ways that are discussed in recent papers in the literature.

04:49Actually, there's a paper on the Paris region that has just came out from people, researchers

04:57from the CIRET, the International Center for Environmental and Development Research.

05:03And they studied the different policies and to what extent people can shift to public

05:07transport.

05:08And so focusing on new public transport infrastructure and making them accessible and affordable

05:15could be a good idea.

05:17Also there's the case that is really discussed right now of low emission zones.

05:23Well, it can be, if it's well designed, it can be a good idea for reducing air pollution.

05:30But as always, it brings a lot of equity concerns about who can afford less polluting cars and

05:37who can shift to public transport.

05:40And so, yeah, so low emission zones could be a good idea, but they need to be well designed

05:48to address equity issues.

05:52But yeah, people should focus on new, making public transport accessible and affordable

06:00would actually help a lot to reduce air pollution, I think.

06:03Ariane Busquet, a PhD student in economics at the University of Paris-Saclay.

06:10Thank you so much for joining us on the program.

06:11Really appreciate your insight there on this story.

06:15Thank you very much.

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