Anyone driving to Paris will have to keep an eye on the speedometer in future.
From Monday on, a maximum speed of 30 kilometers per hour may not be exceeded on almost all roads in the French capital.
Failure to comply could result in fines of at least 90 euros even if the limit is exceeded slightly.
The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, named Spain as a model for inner-city traffic calming. It expects less noise and better air quality from 30 km / h. 59 percent of Parisians would have agreed to a speed limit in a survey, the city administration justified the move. 25 percent fewer
accidents, twice less noise and more space, especially for cyclists, are the arguments in favor of the cut. On 60 percent of the streets the speed limit was 30 anyway, it was said.
She has declared war on car traffic in the metropolis for a long time.
It has expanded the cycle path network and closed the right bank of the Seine to car traffic.
All of this fits into a plan presented in 2018, which promised the metropolis to take a deep breath with more urban greenery, 1000 kilometers of cycle paths and new tram lines.
The Champs-Elysées remain exempt from the Tempo 30 regulation for the time being.
In France, too, Paris is not a pioneer with city-wide speed limits: the cities of Lille and Grenoble had already lowered their speed.