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00:00Drivers on the French capital's crucial ring road will have to take their foot off the
00:04pedal just a little bit as Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo moves to cut the speed limit from
00:1070km per hour to 50km per hour.
00:14The decision has triggered outrage among opponents who say Hidalgo's plans were decided unilaterally,
00:21while the new speed limits will be enforced gradually from the 1st of October.
00:27Let's get more on this story and cross over to Ariane Bousquet, a PhD student in economics
00:31at the University of Paris-Saclay.
00:35Thank you so much for joining us on the programme.
00:38You of course focus particularly on the influence of environmental policies on the automobile
00:43market.
00:45So Mayor Hidalgo has been big on this push to make Paris more green.
00:51Is cutting the speed limit to 50km actually going to have that effect, do you think?
00:58Yes, good evening.
00:59So yeah, the key question to understand, I think, is to understand how it will impact
01:06the factors that are responsible for air pollution.
01:11So this is the target of the policy, but these factors are diverse, so there's the number
01:17of vehicles on the road, there's the vehicle type.
01:20So for example, the vehicle age, the fuel type, the consumption, and there's also the
01:25case of congestion.
01:27So congestion, why?
01:29Because it creates sudden slowing down and accelerations.
01:34And so the presence of congestion creates many pollutants.
01:38So there's not a clear answer to your question, obviously, because while the policy might
01:47impact several of these factors, at least two, it might impact congestion, so it might
01:54actually reduce congestion.
01:56So I say could, because there's no specific study for the reduction from 70km per hour
02:06to 50km per hour.
02:08So we do not have a specific study that tells us that for this particular change, it will
02:13reduce congestion and therefore it will reduce air pollution.
02:18Instead, most of the literature focuses on highways and fast roads, and they agree that
02:26for this type of roads and this type of rapid roads, reducing the speed limit will help
02:33actually reduce congestion.
02:35And so since it reduces congestion, it will reduce air pollution.
02:40But there's not a consensus for less rapid roads and for this specific speed limit.
02:48So I cannot say for sure.
02:51Okay, Ariane, but let us talk us through what you feel are the most concrete effects that
02:58this new decision will have.
03:03Well, it might have an indirect effect on the number of cars on the roads, because this
03:12limit could make cars less attractive for drivers.
03:18And so it could reduce demand in the short term, but it could also encourage people to
03:24shift to other transport modes.
03:27But this is interesting, but this also brings the question of equity, obviously, because
03:33not everyone can shift to public transport, for example.
03:37So in my research, I'm very interested in equity issues of policies.
03:43And we know that on the ring road around Paris, there's one third of people that go from suburbs
03:50to suburbs.
03:51And so this might be difficult for them, because we know that for this kind of trips, it's
03:57particularly difficult to take the train, for example.
04:00There's not a lot of public transport for this type of trips.
04:04And so these people, so one third of people that use the ring road might not be able to
04:09shift to public transport.
04:11And so they might suffer the most from the policy.
04:14So I think, yeah, the equity impacts are important to address before implementing the policy.
04:20Okay, well, I want to go back to the environmental effects again.
04:25What measures should be taken to tackle air and urban pollution in big cities, do you
04:31think?
04:32Well, the speed limit is an idea.
04:36And there's already restrictions on peak pollution days that are quite effective.
04:42But there's several other ways that are discussed in recent papers in the literature.
04:49Actually, there's a paper on the Paris region that has just came out from people, researchers
04:57from the CIRET, the International Center for Environmental and Development Research.
05:03And they studied the different policies and to what extent people can shift to public
05:07transport.
05:08And so focusing on new public transport infrastructure and making them accessible and affordable
05:15could be a good idea.
05:17Also there's the case that is really discussed right now of low emission zones.
05:23Well, it can be, if it's well designed, it can be a good idea for reducing air pollution.
05:30But as always, it brings a lot of equity concerns about who can afford less polluting cars and
05:37who can shift to public transport.
05:40And so, yeah, so low emission zones could be a good idea, but they need to be well designed
05:48to address equity issues.
05:52But yeah, people should focus on new, making public transport accessible and affordable
06:00would actually help a lot to reduce air pollution, I think.
06:03Ariane Busquet, a PhD student in economics at the University of Paris-Saclay.
06:10Thank you so much for joining us on the program.
06:11Really appreciate your insight there on this story.
06:15Thank you very much.