Officials in Paris are banning half of the city's personal vehicles from taking to the streets in an effort to limit smog and bring down pollution levels.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo asked authorities to prevent one in every two cars from taking to the streets and to make all public transport in the city and surrounding towns temporarily free, France 24 reported.
"I am delighted the state has agreed to put in place a partial driving ban on Monday, which I have been requesting for several days," Hidalgo said Saturday on
Only personal vehicles with odd-numbered license plates will be allowed on the road. Some others such as taxis, ambulance and electric cars will also be permitted.
Thursday was the third straight day that air pollution registered far above
European safety thresholds, the Associated Press reported.
Similar emergency measures were implemented in Paris last year during a particularly bad spike in the pollution levels, France 24 reported.
Other cities have taken similar measures to combat smog. Ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' summit in Beijing last year, only half of the Chinese capital's cars were allowed on the roads each day and polluting factories in neighboring provinces were shut down or forced to scale back operations to lessen smog.
In the USA, Los Angeles has topped the list of cities with the worst smog, violating federal health standards for ozone an average of 122 days a year, according totheLos Angeles Times.
"Air pollution is not just a nuisance or the haze we see on the horizon; it's literally putting our health in danger," Bonnie Holmes-Gen, senior policy director of the American Lung Association in California, told the paper.
http://www.usatoday.com/
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