Pedestrians and cyclists have joined forces in Champs-Elysées in Paris to participate in what is coined as a "car-free" day. This movement does not allow motor vehicles to pass by their normal route in the middle of the city. The initiative was started by Paris prior to hosting the United Nations Climate Conference on Nov. 30, which thousand of diplomats, businessmen, and climate change experts will attend, BBC reported.
The car-free day was declared by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo which allowed citizens to roam around the city and immerse themselves in street affairs. The event was decided upon as the city combats its problem with air pollution and tried to come up with resolutions that will be more beneficial for pedestrians and cyclists alike, according to Time.
En amoureux, en famille ou entre amis... MERCI à toutes & tous pour ce beau dimanche à #Paris! #Parissansvoiture pic.twitter.com/lHH0ttU8JZ
— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) September 27, 2015
From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, areas in the city such as the Champs-Elysées, Montmartre and the Canal Saint-Martin were not available for regular traffic but allowed taxis, buses, emergency cars and bicycles to pass through. Particular areas in the Champs-Elysees and Voie Georges Pompidou only allowed pedestrians, Euronews reported.
"Everyone seems to be smiling, and not as stressed," said Elisabeth Pagnac, a woman in her 50s who decided to bike around the city, according to the Guardian.
She immediately noticed the difference in the sky. "I live high in a tower block in the east of the city and looking out of my window today I saw the difference straight away: the sky has never been this blue, it really is different without a hazy layer of pollution hanging in the air."
One of the cities that hold the broadest car-free day is Bogota in Colombia where 122 kilometers of roads are closed and almost 1.5 million vehicles and almost half a million motorcycles are banned, Euronews added.
