“Bravo and thank you Parisians” pollution levels are now in safe limits and ban is lifted-up

A French government official and the ecology minister, Philippe Martin, said Bravo and Thank You to residents of Paris on helping them to reduce pollution levels.

Pollution levels are under safe limits within 24 hours of putting a ban on traffic driving in to the greater Paris. Yesterday French government halted a controversial scheme to ban half of the traffic from Paris streets and after a single day, government has declared that the experiment had been successful because of the co-operation of Parisians.

The ecology minister, Philippe Martin, said a big “thank you” in a message to the residents of Paris and the adjoining areas as he declared that the alternating driving scheme would end at midnight on Monday.

Martin said the government decided in opposition to expand the restrictions because the weather situation and conditions were getting better and the pollution level would not breach the safe limit on Tuesday. But ecological experts said it would take some time to conclude the impact of the car ban on the pollution levels.

This ban was put on traffic due to the micro particles of PM10 emitted by diesel cars and other industrial emissions. The level of harmful micro particles reached 180 micro grams last Friday which was almost double of 80 micro grams which is the safe limit.

On other hand, Jean-Paul Huchon, the head of the regional transport authority said; “free metro and bus travel costs €4m per day.” Several online surveys by weekly magazine Le Point shows that more than 64% people were against these restrictions in Paris.