Vintage Cars Could Be Banned in Paris by 2014

Here in the States, the hot rod community prides themselves on restoring and maintaining classic cars. After all, classic hot rods are part of our history. Unfortunately, not every culture feels the same about classic vehicles, however. As we found out from Fox News, the mayor of Paris, France, Bertrand Delanoe, is actually proposing a ban on any vehicle produced before 1997 on city streets starting in 2014. If passed, this would mean an end to cars from classics all the way up to those just 17 years old in one of the world’s most well known touristy cities.

Image: The Guardian

While we have emissions standards and criteria here that our classic vehicles must meet in order to be driven on the road, nothing comes close to the all-out ban that is currently being proposed in Paris. Proposed as part of an environmental program, the ban on vehicles from 1997 and before on city streets aims to cut down on pollution in the city. Unfortunately, if passed, the ban would greatly affect those individuals who can’t afford to own a newer car and would completely do away with several classic generations and vehicles, including the Citroen 2CV that is so widely associated with The City of Lights.

In addition to classic cars, the ban would also disallow trucks and buses built before 1996 from driving on city streets, as well as ban some motorcycles up to the 2001 model year. In total, the ban would eliminate an estimated 365,000 vehicles in the area from driving in the city. The A86 road that circles the city would be the boundary for any older vehicle. Delanoe also wants to convert miles of roadways into pedestrian walkways and implement a congestion tax to reduce city traffic.

An extreme move, the vehicle ban would be devastating not only to the automotive community but also the classic ora of Paris. If passed, Paris would join Calcutta, India as the only cities in the world to ban older vehicles from its city limits. The ban is expected to be decided upon by Parisian police and the French government next year. Stay tuned as we find out more on how this could affect the Hot Rod hobby in these areas.