Paris mayor wants to ban polluting trucks, buses

Yahoo - AFP, 28 Jan 2015

Traffic clogs the rue de Rivoli in Paris on August 5, 2014. The mayor of Paris

 wants to ban polluting buses and trucks in the French capital from July (AFP Photo/

Fred Dufour)

Paris (AFP) - The mayor of Paris said she wants to ban polluting buses and trucks in the French capital from July to fight pollution in one of the world's most visited cities.

Paris has a relatively high population density and tourists are often surprised by the traffic levels in and around its historic sights.

The city also experiences periodic pollution spikes, forcing authorities to impose temporary speed limits on motorists, make public transport free and even ban vehicles from running on certain days.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, seen here at

 the city hall of Paris on November 17, 2014,

 will formally submit her anti-pollution plan

next month (AFP Photo/Stephane de

Sakutin)

"I want to ban the most polluting buses and heavy goods vehicles from July 1, 2015," Anne Hidalgo told Le Monde daily in an interview published Wednesday.

"And on July 1, 2016... this ban will extend to all of the most polluting vehicles," she said, adding that the area where the ban would be enacted was still under negotiation.

"I would like this ban to first apply to the whole of Paris, apart from the peripherique (ring road around the city) and the woods of Paris," she said.

Hidalgo is due next month to formally submit her anti-pollution plan for the city of more than two million people.

She has already announced she wants to ban all diesel vehicles by 2020, limit cars in the city centre, and extend zones where the speed limit is fixed at 30 kilometres (18 miles) an hour.

She also wants to double the amount of cycle lanes as part of a 100-million-euro ($113 million) bike development plan, and roll out a system of electric-powered bikes along the same lines as the city's popular velib temporary bike hire network.

Hidalgo said if her plan to ban polluting trucks and buses came to fruition, she planned to incentivise businesses to buy cleaner vehicles through financial aid and prime rate loans in a bid to avoid affecting deliveries in the city.

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Jakarta Governor Says Out With Old Cars

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Jakarta Governor Says Out With Old Cars

Jakarta Globe, Deti Mega Purnamasari, Jan 09, 2015

Vehicles are caught in a traffic jam in Jakarta. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s capital is planning to limit access to the city’s roads for ageing vehicles by slapping heftier taxes on those that have passed a certain age.

“We don’t want the same kind of [traffic] policies that are implemented in Singapore or China — they are too harsh,” Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said at City Hall on Friday.

Singapore car owners are required to buy a certificate of entitlement that is valid for only 10 years, despite the fact that a personal vehicle can operate safely for longer, up to 17 years. Cars that have reached their 10-year expiration date are scrapped. Then there is the additional registration fee, which ranges from 75 percent to 100 percent of the car’s market value depending on its age.

Basuki said a slightly more lenient policy was needed in Jakarta to reduce air pollution and accidents. The regulation, he said, would also force some car and motorcycle owners to leave their vehicles at home and switch to public transport.

“Our economy is not as advanced [as Singapore] so we will allow [people to have older cars],” he said. “But we want a vehicle’s age to be limited to, let’s say, 10 years.”

“We are still working out the details of the regulation.”

An alternative would be to bar older vehicles from entering Jakarta’s major thoroughfares, Basuki added, particularly those streets where the planned electronic road pricing scheme will be applied. Officials say the ERP could be up and running as early as January 2016.

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US-Cuba thaw could spell end for island's iconic cars

Yahoo – AFP, Alexandre Grosbois, 21 Dec 2014

Old American cars are seen on a street in Havana, Cuba, on December 19, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

Havana (AFP) - Cuba's iconic stock of refurbished vintage American sedans from the 1950s may be facing their last trips to the garage soon, following the historic thawing of ties between Havana and Washington.

Flashy Pontiacs, Plymouths, Dodges and Chevrolets, as well as crudely patched and rickety classics make up the Communist island's 70,000 "almendrones," cars affectionately called large almonds for their rounded shape.

Fancier classic models are rented for special occasions while their more rundown counterparts are driven as taxis and by families.

An old American car is seen on a 

street in Havana, Cuba, on December

19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

But they all have one thing in common: they survived the Cuban Revolution, the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The almendrones owe their lasting nature to the master skills of local mechanics, as well as to the American embargo and Cuban authorities who put the brakes on replenishing the the island's stock of cars.

Purchasing and selling the vehicles, which has only been allowed for the past three years, is only permitted for Cubans.

'Puts food on table'

The easing of the five-decade US trade embargo, one part of the rapprochement announced Wednesday, is likely to awaken the attention and desire of car connoisseurs worldwide, who are eager to snatch up the classic models.

"You would have to pay me good money to sell my car," Aramis Carmona, 40, told AFP, watching tourists from his white and red 1953 Chevy with hubcaps and a chrome bumper.

"It puts food on the table," the amateur mechanic said. "When I have a little money, I buy motor oil instead of cooking oil, because I know that that will help me feed my family."

He said he had given new life to the "wreck" he bought ten years ago for $7,000.

During the Revolution, Fidel rode around in an Oldsmobile with guns hidden in the seat. Ernesto "Che" Guevara went for rides, cigar in mouth, at the wheel of a Studebaker.

This was before Cuba decided to swap its Western cars for more "revolutionary" vehicles, like the famous Russian GAZ-69 jeep adopted by "El Comandante" Castro.

Never blotted out

In the 1960s and 1970s, Peugeot 404s made in Argentina, then Czech Skodas and Soviet Ladas tried to take over the road but with limited success, as the vintage American models kept passing from hand to hand.

Peugeots and Chinese models appeared on Cuban roads in the 1990s and 2000s, but they, too, never overpowered the omnipresent American classics.

Old American cars are seen in Havana, Cuba, on December 19, 2014 

(AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

However, few original parts remain under the cars' hoods after numerous patchups from crack mechanics who have brought them back from the dead multiple times.

Carmona said that he replaced his Chevy's original motor four years ago with a BMW diesel model that consumed far less fuel. The original went only 6 kilometers per liter (14 miles per gallon).

British architect Norman Foster, struck by the cars' looks and upkeep during a recent trip to Cuba, paid tribute in the book "Havana: Autos and Architecture," where he describes a tight relationship between the island's history and its vehicles.

He tells of Ruben Hernandez, who in 1951 bought a Buick Super Dynaflow. In 1959, his family's belongings were confiscated in the Cuban Revolution, but Hernandez managed to save the car.

The collector's item now belongs to his youngest son William Hernandez, who inherited it in 1989.

Since then, he's taken it every day to display alongside other flashy cars at Havana's tourist hot spots. For $25 per hour, he offers passersby a ride back in time, in a vehicle whose days may now be limited.

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