JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Paris is undergoing a major transformation. In a referendum last month, 66% of Parisians voted to convert 500 more streets into pedestrian zones, marking one of the biggest shifts in how the city moves. It's the latest step in the mayor's yearslong effort to make Paris greener, quieter and less car dependent. But as NPR's Rebecca Rosman discovered, not everyone is thrilled about the changes.
REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: Eight years ago, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made a bold promise to make cars vanish. She vowed to cut vehicle circulation in half. Less smog, more bike lanes and more footpaths.
ROSMAN: Like this one in the city's 18th district, just behind the Sacre-Coeur. That's where I meet 39-year-old Pierre Cabane. He's set up a table and chairs where cars used to park and enjoys a leisurely lunch in the sun with friends. No surprise, then, when Cabane tells me he voted in favor of the plan to pedestrianize 500 more Paris streets.
PIERRE CABANE: Just the less cars you have, I think the more pleasant it is for people to live in.
ROSMAN: But not everyone is on board. Some Parisians say these changes come at a cost.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN HONKING)
ROSMAN: Reda Kessera has been a Paris taxi driver for 25 years. I meet him on Rue de Rivoli, a major street that now dedicates most of its space to bikes, leaving just a single lane for taxis, buses and emergency vehicles.
REDA KESSERA: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: Traffic, he says, has become unbearable, and that means fewer people are taking taxis.
KESSERA: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: Speaking of the referendum, he says it may be great for Parisians, but it shows nothing but scorn for the people who come to work here, and that a taxi ride that used to take 15 minutes can now take an hour.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN HONKING)
ROSMAN: Carlos Moreno, an urban planner and adviser to Mayor Hidalgo, says pedestrianization isn't just about traffic. It's about rethinking urban life.
CARLOS MORENO: This is the sense of this new urban policy - walkability, bikeability, green areas, public spaces, local jobs, local economy, social interactions.
ROSMAN: He says Paris learned from cities like Amsterdam. Before its cycling revolution in the 1970s, road deaths across the Netherlands had reached record highs - some 3,000 in 1971 alone. That crisis helped turn the Dutch capital into one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world.
MORENO: I said to my friends in Los Angeles, maybe you will be the next Amsterdam if you will decide to start this transformation, even if we need to be patient and to take time for that. But the most important is to start.
ROSMAN: Mayor Anne Hidalgo won't be running for reelection, but her vision is reshaping Paris in ways that will long outlast her time in office. The city's major boulevards are quieter than ever.
(SOUNDBITE OF JACKHAMMERS DRILLING)
ROSMAN: A lot of the noise pollution today comes from construction sites like this one - yet another street, this one in the Marais, being dug up and turned into a car-free walking zone. A sign that Paris isn't just cutting cars, it's making the City of Lights into the City of Bikes. Rebecca Rosman, NPR News, Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF NIKI SONG, "EVERY SUMMERTIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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