Drivers fume as right bank of Seine to turn into park

Every Sunday and for much of the summer Paris closes the Voie Georges Pompidou between the Louvre museum and the Place de la Bastille area to motor traffic, opening it to pedestrians and cyclists, but this year cars are not being allowed back as the city prepares to transform the area into a riverside park. In heavy traffic on the first Monday of the new school year, many drivers and local business owners said the measure would increase congestion, commuting time and pollution elsewhere in the city. 

“I’m a saleswoman, this is a hassle, it is just horrible,” French driver Corinne said. Others agreed. Italian wine merchant Gianluca De Simone, who criss-crosses Paris on his scooter every day visiting restaurants and bars, said that before closing off key arteries, the city should improve buses and subways and make better use of the river for transport. 

His colleague Benoit, who sells French wine, said cycling is no alternative to driving. “I carry 15 bottles of wine with me. How would I get up the hill at Montmartre? What about winter, what about rain,” he said. Paris deputy mayor Christophe Najdovski dismissed the drivers’ arguments. 

“We want to pedestrianise the bank as we want to give this magnificent space, part of the UNESCO World Heritage, back to Parisians,” said Najdovski, who is in charge of the city’s transport policy. The highway, built in the 1960s, brought motor traffic to a place where there was none before.