"Vracktal" (Vracktal-)
03/17/2014 at 06:43 • Filed to: Paris Air pollution
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"Vracktal" (Vracktal-)
03/17/2014 at 06:43 • Filed to: Paris Air pollution | 1
| 10 |
In an effort to curb air pollution in the city, Parisian authorities have !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Additionally, for as long as the scheme is running, the fares for using the public transit network will be reduced to zero, instead being paid out of general taxation funds.
The aim of the scheme seems to be to lower air pollution, but as far as I can tell the list of exceptions they had to tack on in order to prevent the city from shutting down economically means that the only people not driving will be half of the daily commuters. The heavy goods delivery vehicles (diesels), industrial lorries (diesels), manufacturing plants and oil-burning heating systems are all going to be running as normal, as well as emergency services (mostly diesels) have all been given special exemption and will still be on the roads. Also, driving with more than three people in your car allows you an exemption also.
The official list of exemptions, translated from the French .gov website:
Are not affected by restrictive measures:
non-polluting light vehicles, electric vehicles, vehicles running on natural gas vehicle (NGV) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and hybrid vehicles;
light commercial vehicles (vans);
vehicles in which took up at least three people, and users are encouraged to carpool;
vehicles whose movement is justified by the necessity of performing public service tasks (police, police, fire, EMS, SMUR, postal vehicles, money transport, garbage collection and ...);
vehicles in charge of supplying the population (vehicles supply markets, grocery stores, cafes and restaurants, deliveries of perishables, refrigerated vehicles, trucks ...);
vehicles whose use is strictly necessary for the performance of professional and easily identifiable (transport activity, taxis, press vehicles, coaches, school buses, driving school vehicles, movers, recovery vehicles, vehicles transporting materials for projects ...).
Note that vehicles Great War Invalids (GIG) and Great Civil Invalides (GIC) or ducts or transporting handicapped or disabled persons enjoy the same exemption.
So the only vehicles not on the road will be commuter motorcycles (entirely petrol, all catalysed after 2003-ish) and commuter cars (mix of about 50/50 petrol and diesel.) The particulates that they're trying to cut down on are almost soley produced by diesel vehicles, so as far as I can tell this is going to have no real effect on the pollution levels. Additionally, the fine for breaking the rules is less than $30 (£18/€22)
If this scheme lasts longer than a week, I'm fairly certain we'll see the same pattern of activity as every other city that's tried this- people buy cheap, crappy old cars with an alternate number plate to their daily driver, and use that on the other day instead.
Of course, the real solution to this problem would be to develop a hybrid diesel-electric or even pure EV heavy goods vehicle, and upgrade the houses still using antiquated oil-burning heating systems in the city centre, but since city authorities are in the habit of demanding results RIGHT NOW, I guess regulations like this are going to become more and more common in large cities.
Flavien Vidal
> Vracktal
03/17/2014 at 07:13 |
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This was voted a while ago, but it's the first time that it gets enacted...
Really not a bad thing, especially with the free public transport that goes with it. Diesel vehicules are the plague of Europe for the past 30 years. Yet, USA is going toward diesel now. "But we have CLEAN diesel"... Yeah right lol. We've made diesel cars for the past 40 years, but "you know better" lol.
AthomSfere
> Vracktal
03/17/2014 at 07:22 |
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So...
vehicles in which took up at least three people, and users are encouraged to carpool;
Completely unenforceable? "Officer, I just dropped off my two kids and wife, just driving the final leg to get myself to work."
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Flavien Vidal
> AthomSfere
03/17/2014 at 07:36 |
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Nope, very enforceable... You cannot drive with less than 3 people in the car. Period. Also, most people who daily commute, live outside of Paris. So they pick up everyone in the suburbs and go to work all together... They leave the same way. Within Paris, public transportation is VERY easy to use and everywhere. It's actually faster to use the Metro than your own car
jkm7680
> Vracktal
03/17/2014 at 07:39 |
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Beer Beep Motherfuckers.
On a serious note, it seems like a good idea to take some cars off the road on an alternating system. It's better than completely getting rid of civilian cars, and it is probably suggesting Ngv and Lgv vehicles be purchased more by the public.
Alex87f
> Vracktal
03/17/2014 at 08:06 |
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We have the same pollution issue here ( i.e. across France's northern border). They're fighting it by reducing speed limits to 90kph instead of 120 on the highways, and to 50kph everywhere within cities. 80% of new cars here are diesels, and reducing speed limits will not take a single one of them off the roads.
Probably the best thing is that out of all major media outlets relaying news about this particulates alert, not a single one mentions the fact that diesels vehicles are one of the biggest causes of this problem. No word either on the fact that the vast majority of petrol engines do not emit particles at.
duurtlang
> Vracktal
03/17/2014 at 08:20 |
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The effective part of all of this is that the traffic jams will be all but gone, so even the exempt vehicles won't pollute as much as they would under normal conditions.
The Transporter
> Flavien Vidal
03/17/2014 at 08:36 |
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We also have "clean" coal. My drinking water is now polluted with arsenic, amongst other things, because a massive "clean" coal ash spill polluted one of the tributaries to the Cape Fear River.
KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
> Flavien Vidal
03/17/2014 at 09:28 |
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The only time taking the Métro and the RER is a pain is when its raining.
Other than that, its not bad. And the fares are usually reasonable, but if the RATP is getting money to cover it, that's fine too.
The problem with clean diesel is that you have the rest of the older cars that are not clean diesel. So it doesn't do much.
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Flavien Vidal
> KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
03/17/2014 at 17:29 |
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If you're french, I strongly recommend you watch the report on Diesel cars by Elise Lucet... Freaking shoking. "Clean Diesel" is the worst bullshit ever created in the automotive industry... And people are gullible enough to believe that crap lol
http://www.france2.fr/emission/cash-…
You can find it on different torrent website.
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Flavien Vidal
> The Transporter
03/17/2014 at 17:30 |
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Yeah clean diesel is the worst marketing bullshit ever created... and worst is that it actually works lol