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Paris Will Ban Through Traffic in City Center

Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s latest effort to rein in car use and fight pollution would prevent non-residents from driving across the French capital's historic heart in 2022.

A traffic jam near Place de la Concorde in Paris in 2018 — a pre-pandemic scene that city officials don’t want to repeat. 

A traffic jam near Place de la Concorde in Paris in 2018 — a pre-pandemic scene that city officials don’t want to repeat. 

Photographer: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In an announcement Wednesday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo set an audacious new benchmark in her ongoing campaign to reduce car use across the French capital: a ban on most vehicle traffic crossing the city center in 2022.

The plan would stop through traffic  from a large zone covering Paris’ core, to cut pollution and noise and free up more space for trees, cycle lanes and pedestrian areas. A public consultation for the plan launched this week.