Lane closure on riverbank : a limited impact on pollution

NICOLAS MESSYASZ/SIPA

Published the 10.10.2017 at 15h56

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Parispollution atmosphériquevoiture

This is a report nuances that made Airparif. The agency has issued a document that assesses the implications of the pedestrianization of the tracks on embankment in Paris. The quays of the right bank of the Seine have been closed to traffic in September 2016. Since then, the debate has been raging between the opponents of the policy conducted by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and its defenders.

The report Airparif should assist neither one nor the other in their argument. The pedestrianization of this part of the docks has resulted in an ” improvement of the quality of the air along the quays closed to traffic “, with a decrease in the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of up to 25 % . The levels, however, remain ” above the values of the regulatory as with many of the roads in the greater paris region “, noted the agency in charge of monitoring of the air quality in the capital.

No impact on the background pollution

He observes, however, “a degradation more or less marked” (up to +15 %) around the crossroads in this area and Is, as of the end of the portion piétonnisée. The impacts are also felt on a couple of routes to report.

Thus, the degradation is more marked at the level of the quai Henri IV, then along the quai de Bercy. It is more limited (+1 % to +5 %) at the crossroads of the quays senior whose congestion has increased, and on the routes of deferral as the boulevard Saint Germain.

“These impacts do not affect the background, and remain limited in the vicinity of the roads concerned. Because of this, no significant impact on the exposure of populations have not been demonstrated to increase or decrease “, can we read.

Metropolis : small gaps

The results are based on two measurement campaigns, one in winter and another in summer, combined with modeling tools that were used to reconstruct the variations of the pollution on the whole agglomeration, in relation with the evolution of road traffic.

On the whole of the metropolis, all the observed variations of pollution highlighted the long traffic ” cannot be attributed to the closure of the banks of the Seine “, in particular the increases found on the A3 or the A4, beyond of Villiers-sur-Marne, accurate Airparif, which specifies, however, that ” small deviations of the levels of nitrogen dioxide of +1 % to +5 %, and on a few major roads are possibly related to the pedestrianization (A4, A86 and A13) “.