[Headline: Poll. If 60% of Parisians have a good opinion of (Mayor) Bertrand Delanoë, the degradation of their daily life worries them.]
I wonder what percentage of people who have to drive in Paris have a good opinion of Mr Delanoë? I would like to know what percentage of people who work in Paris have a good opinion of him. A lot of them come in from the suburbs. I was in a traffic jam with them this morning before 7 a.m. [Update: The poll actually says ("Red card for the mayor") that 66% of Parisians and 69% of suburban people polled are unsatisfied with the traffic arrangements in Paris, and 66% of Parisans, 71% of suburban people are unsatisfied with parking in Paris. That is interesting considering that only about one-fifth of Parisians even own cars; but everyone has to put up with the noise, pollution and sheer unpleasantness of constantly clogged major roads.]
This morning at 6h15 I was woken by a plaintive phone call: "I'm really sorry to bother you, but I ordered a taxi at 6 a.m. and it's still not here. If I don't get to the airport in forty minutes I will miss my plane. Could you possibly drive me?"
I had only four hours sleep so I wasn't in the best of moods about this, but I grouchily flung on my clothes and rushed downstairs. We got to the airport in 15 minutes, going at the speed limit (well, except for that last little bit...). There are three radar cameras on the way now, so even the taxis go at the speed limit. Then it took more than an hour to get back into Paris, even though it should take only twenty minutes at that time of day.
The obstructive one-way streets, always deliberately in the wrong direction; the cementing in of intersections; the mad widening of sidewalks that were already wide and empty-- that was bad enough. But the mayor's new pet project: double-laned cement-walled bus corridors hogging the main thoroughfares of Paris-- is the worst.
I used to like Mr Delanoë. I think he had a lot of good ideas; he was right to give pedestrians priority in the center city. But he has gone too far. WAY too far. He doesn't seem to understand that not everyone, everywhere, can be a pedestrian all the time. You should hear what the delivery truck drivers say about him. A city needs to be accessible or it will die.
He is choking this city.
I saw this story mentioned on the news this morning and I thought of you. :)
Posted by: Vivi | 19 January 2006 at 13:11
I belong to the 40 % who don't like him (and I used to like him too). I don't know who are the 60 % and I don't understand. It's hopeless. I think people who have to use a car, even if it's only from time to time, will have to leave. Paris will be just a gigantic museum where happy and rich Bobos will ride their bicycles.
[From Sedulia:
"Bobo" is short for "Bourgeois-Bohème" or "Bourgeois-Bohemian."]
Posted by: Zardoz | 19 January 2006 at 14:57
Paris is not alone in the growing tensions between the city-dwellers who usually don't have cars and the suburbanites who drive in and clog things up. I see this is New York and parts of Los Angeles, and other American cities. But it is a complicated matter, where the inner cities have become cool places to live, and only the young and wealthy can really afford it -- while much of the work force is commuting in. So, the traffic issue also begins to connect to other issues such as class, money, and race.
Posted by: Neil | 19 January 2006 at 21:48
Eek. It's moments like this that make me thankful that I live iin the country.
Posted by: Sammy | 20 January 2006 at 10:10
Is it true somehting I heard a few years back, that in order to help enforce Bus lanes in Paris, the authorities hhav made it so that if a car and a bus have an accident in the bus lanes, the car is always at fault, no matter what? As a result bus drivers were ofter using cars for target practice?
From Sedulia:
I've never heard that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true because cars are not supposed to be in the bus lanes. Turning right is often a problem because of the bus lanes.
Posted by: Ham | 21 January 2006 at 09:15
Geneva is like this. It's impossible to park and you are encouraged (strong-armed) into doing their famous park/ride; parking in the outskirts and riding the bus. They've ended up with a city difficult to get to with little personality.
Posted by: misschrisc | 21 January 2006 at 09:41
Hi ! I am French and I live in Paris, sorry for my english...
The problem for driving in Paris is due for a large part to the lack of transport "suburb to suburb" for many many years...
All is concentrated in Paris, even the roads which directions are not Paris but other countries of France.
Delanoë wanted to improve th circulation of pedestrians and I think that is is a good idea. Cars made themselves Paris a hell for... themselves since a long time, without a Delanoë!
But it's sure that without a real thinking about circulation in all the country "Île de France", drivers won't manage to drive easily...
Posted by: BiduleChouette | 14 June 2006 at 22:25