Paris is a city with a vision: The end of the automobile age. Dependence on gas- and diesel-powered vehicles has come at a huge cost to Parisians’ health and the environment in the metropolis of 12 million people. The French capital, regularly covered in a thick blanket of smog, has the worst air quality of any city in western Europe, according to a Greenpeace-commissioned study.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo believes it’s time for radical action. She wants the city to become a fossil fuel-free zone, a place where people get around on foot, bicycles, public transit and ― if necessary ― in electric vehicles.
