Paris to Implement City-Wide 30 km/h Speed Limit

Special Report: Walkable Streets

Paris to Implement City-Wide 30 km/h Speed Limit

This is not a timid pilot project with a five-year moratorium on implementing changes anywhere else: it is a city-wide initiative that follows logically from the city's experiments with lower-speed and pedestrian-only zones.

By Nicholas Kevlahan
Published May 22, 2014

The new Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has just announced that the default speed limit for Paris streets will be reduced from 50 km/h to 30 km/h over the entire city of Paris.

Paris, France (RTH file photo)

In addition, Paris will implement special mixed streets where pedestrians can walk and linger anywhere, and cars are limited to 20 km/h. Even the Peripherique, the highway ring road that runs around the city, has its speed limit reduced from 80 km/h to 70 km/h. Only a very small number of major afterials will remain at 50 km/h.

The change was tested in pilot projects and is now being implemented system-wide based on the results of those tests. Reducing dangerous vehicle speeds and air pollution benefits everyone, so it only makes sense that a policy demonstrated to achieve these goals should apply everywhere.

It was not studied and re-studied and studied again for years on end without ever making an impression on the status quo approach to street design. Perhaps more significant, the fact that some people might not like it does not mean the project is squelched.

'Flooding the Market'

Paris has already shown through its cycle lane and Velib projects that a major system-wide change to a city's transportation network is often much more successful than hesitant, incremental changes bogged down by never-ending studies.

This "flooding the market" approach to change transforms people's behaviour in a way that tepid, go-slow tinkering cannot. By establishing a single mental model across the city, it actually makes the change easier for motorists to accept and adopt.

Of course, Hamilton could never think of doing something similar, since we have so much traffic that needs to flow and so little space, unlike the quiet, spacious, provincial city of Paris!

But in all seriousness, it is interesting that back in its Ambitious City days, Hamilton did "flood the market" with overnight one-way conversions.

That turned out not to be such a good idea, but we seem to have drawn the wrong conclusion. Instead of, "Be prepared to evaluate big decisions and change if necessary", we have learned, "Avoid ever making ambitious changes".

These days, Hamilton almost never gets beyond the study stage, or we make "decisions" that are never implemented - like the 13 year old list of two-way conversions - or we debate endlessly about even undertaking a study for fear that we might eventually be forced by the evidence to make a decision.

Our Councillors constantly worry about the presence of an "exit ramp" from any controversial policy, with the result that we fail to commit to necessary changes.

For what it's worth, I actually like the idea of flexible pilot projects. For a long time, pilot projects were - I was told five years ago that the City can't do pilot projects - and have been recently embraced in such a way as to delay real change.

Nicholas Kevlahan was born and raised in Vancouver, and then spent eight years in England and France before returning to Canada in 1998. He has been a Hamiltonian since then, and is a strong believer in the potential of this city. Although he spends most of his time as a mathematician, he is also a passionate amateur urbanist and a fan of good design. You can often spot him strolling the streets of the downtown, shopping at the Market. Nicholas is the spokesperson for Hamilton Light Rail.

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By Paris, Ont (anonymous) | Posted May 22, 2014 at 13:36:26

Well if Paris just west of Hamilton can do this then we can do this and fix dangerous one ways to two ways too.

Raise the Hammer

Special Report: Walkable Streets