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Paris Mayor: I want a city with less cars. Perhaps it's controversial, but I think I'm on the right side of history. I had lobbyists from car companies threaten me in my own office. (www.radiofrance.fr)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/fuck_cars@lemmy.ml
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[–] 128 points 1 year ago (23 children)

This woman is the mother of based. Every time i hear anything from her its good. Paris is lucky to have her.

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  • [–] 67 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Although, it's super common to ear that any problem is to blame on her. It's so common it has become kind of a running gag. "Oh there is a scratch on my car thank you so much Hidalgo".

    Some explanation I heard is that people living in Paris or very close kinda like her (expect the richer right-winged neighborhoods in the west) but people outside of Paris hate her more because Paris might be less accessible by car than it used to be. My own take on this is that it's bullshit and Paris was never accessible by car, I have very clear childhood memories of my parents looking for a parking spot for more that 15 minutes while swearing they would never take the car to go to Paris ever again.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    People outside of Paris should take their car to the nearest Francilien/RER etc. Station.

    Taking your car into the city is just a dumb idea

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Yeah that's what the city is aiming at.

    It's also what a vast majority of people is doing for a very pragmatic reason : RER A has the throughput of an 11-lanes highway (you can easily get to this number assuming that when it's crowed there is a 1500-passenger train departing each two minutes and that 1.5 people per car will comply to security distances).

    Sadly not everyone is equal, RER B (north <-> south axis) is overcrowded and has a lot of incidents.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago*

    Montreal mayor Valerie Plante has the same story.... Made the city much better for the majority of citizens but got tons of hate from the minority of drivers in the city plus the suburbanites who couldn't find a parking spot on the weekends

    Unfortunately she is not seeking re-election due to the hate she gets from a very vocal minority of the ciitizens and the suburbanites who arent even technically citizens in montreal

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    30 years ago it would commonly take me a full hour to find a parking space in my neighbourhood. I've long since switched to a bicycle. But it certainly wasn't better back then. And the traffic wasn't better either.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    You can't imagine all the hate she gets, though...

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    She tried to claim there wasn’t any sewage in the Seine for the Olympics. She swam in it for a press event, and a website told people upriver what time to flush to make sure it all got there for her big moment.

    You almost like the Fr*nch for that sort of thing.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    I can only imagine. I think there's few cities that have undergone such a transformation as has paris in the last 10 years. It's lovely to see. But all the anger that people have felt from that is probably almost exclulively projected onto her. She's the lonely reason for alll the hardships that the carbrained old people in Paris have to endure. That's what they feel everyday.

    I think she should have a Car-only-day before the election where everyone who switched to a bike is driving by car for the day. The resulting chaos would be a nice reminder for what the city has gained in lofe quality during the last decade.

    It's easy to get accustomed to improved circumstances like more bike travel. But people seldomly forget if something has negatively affected them - especially if it was caused in some remote way by her policies.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Of course she does.. Amyone who wants to make things better for everyone always does. She needs to have a group for entitled people to hate, like Meloni does, to deflect that from herself.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

    Depends, most poor people doesn't live in city center but at its border. So they use lot cars or rer.

    The rental price is crazy high there.

    They need to divide rent price and create more public transport to connect the outside city to its center. So it's a very difficult project, so urban planner sketched ideas to decentralize paris from its center.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Nah. Only 4% of the trips of people inside Paris are made by car. If people inside Paris can do it, then so can people from outside Paris. Leave your car outside of the city and use the methods of transport that 96% of Parisians use. There is no right to car travel.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    My main point was the living cost. I lived in Paris center in 8m2 for 400€. And paid the navigo pass around 70€ or even more.

    If you want to plan an ecological city, you don't only need to reduce cars but create affordable public transport that connect city border to its center. And the article explain badly the challenge.

    Ecological planification can't bypass social and economy. I was just arguing that you can't do an ecological city if you don't reduce rent in Paris's center.

    The problem Paris face is its "gentrification"

    The city center is the most expensive one compared to living in rural area with a garden and few basic shop. And everything is less expensive outside Paris.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    I lived in Paris center in 8m2 for 400€.

    Is this correct? 8 square meters? Was just a bed and a toilet next to it?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago*

    Yes. Toilet were collective. They were located outside my flat and digusting. I cleaned them with 1 liter of bleach. Maybe i exagerate but that was the first time of my life i used so much bleach.

    Here is the plan.

    Left side

    • 1 bed
    • 1 table + 1 chair

    Right side

    • 1 small kitchen
    • 1 shower
    • 1 wardrobe

    Between in the middle of left and right side, a small walking corridor of 45cm. With this, you can calculate the surface : 2meters x 4 meters

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I think France measures space differently,.as in living areas only ?.not toilets, , corridors, kitchens etc ?

    In Australia it's the entire apartment, including balcony, I dont think that's the case in France but I'd love to be corrected if I am wrong ?

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    • [–] 115 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    Freedom is not "being able to drive anywhere." Freedom is being able to go anywhere with just your own body without a giant metal cage around it.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    And let's not forget: you can't use the giant metal cage unless you have a plethora of details registered with the government and associated with the cage! And you're legally required to have a contract with a private company to insure the cage.

    Freedom. Bah.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    and even if we use a spoon to remove the part of our brains that know cars suck, surely no one actually wants to drive everywhere, surely a sane person only wants to drive in certain places?

    no one fucking drives from norway to china, what people drive is from their house in the boonies to oslo airport, then from seoul airport they get a rental car and drive around the south korean countryside or whatever.

    I hate cars and yet i think they genuinely have a place, however that place is in rural garages and as nationalized carshare systems. There are places that can only reasonably be reached by car, and that is the only place where cars should exist.

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    • [–] 51 points 1 year ago

    I remember wandering through summertime Paris early '90s, exhaust fumes sticking everywhere on my clothes and sweaty parts. All cars had dents because cars where everywhere and fuck your car...I need to park in this couple of centimeters.

    This is kind of a miracle.

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    [–] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Paris is rising on my list of places to visit. Now if they could take care of all the smoking...

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I was there last summer again after 5-6 years and it's astounding how much difference they've already made transforming the city. I enjoyed it before but would have never imagined living there until this trip.

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    • [–] 12 points 1 year ago*

    @comfy All this hate because the car lobbyists know that just a few cities moving away from car-centric infrastructure will show Europeans how much more liveable cities can become.
    And to protect their huge profits, they will do everything they can to force people to continue living in overcrowded, dirty, noisy, brutalist hellscapes designed for cars only. And make them pay for it with their taxes, through subsidies and the constant cost of renewing the car infrastructure.

    Go Paris!

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    [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Let my people walk & breathe!

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