Paris’ smog warriors take aim at nippy motorbikes

PARIS - Paris has set its sights on a tough and nippy little enemy, the small motorbike, as it debates some of the most ambitious plans of any major city in the world to tame traffic problems.

Ruled by a coalition of Socialists and Greens, the city council has already stoked the ire of car-owners by installing bus and bicycle lanes on the main avenues, slashing the availability of street parking, boosting the number of pedestrian-only, low-speed and tow-away zones and unleashing a propaganda war against four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The next step takes city hall's offensive against the internal combustion engine another grade higher.

In the crosshairs is the two-stroke motorbike, whose oil-and-petrol fuel mix is being blamed for the city's worsening air pollution.

Small, with a 50cc engine that gives a top speed of 70-80 km/h, these bikes hold a special place in French hearts. As the staid "mobylette" (moped), they are used by grandads in the countryside to take their eggs to market, while teenage boys across the country use the souped-up form as a rite of passage.

Under a plan put forward by the Greens, two-strokes would be outlawed from a swathe of residential areas in Paris.

And all motorbikes, not just two-strokes, will be placed in the same category as cars when it comes to smog alerts.

When air pollution levels pass a certain threshold, the vehicle can only be used on alternate days. Beyond a second, higher level, use of the vehicle is outlawed altogether.

The plan has outraged motorcyclists' groups as well as the many Parisians who have bought motorbikes because of the increasing cost and inconvenience of having a car in Paris.

In the past two years, 15 per cent of car owners in Paris have sold their vehicle and purchased a motorbike, says the daily Le Parisien.

But Yves Contassot, the Green councillor behind the proposed crackdown, cites studies by Swiss scientists and Airparif, a Government agency that monitors air pollution in Paris, in saying that two-stroke motorbikes "are 200 to 300 times dirtier than a car".

He says a third of all of the emissions of the smog gas nitrogen oxide in the Greater Paris region can be attributed to just 3 per cent of the locally registered 300,000 motorbikes.

Also in the air is a Greens plan to transform the core of Paris into a vast pedestrian zone by 2012, when the city hopes to stage the Olympics.

The Greens supporters are enthusiastic about such measures. They are fed up with the noise and foul air from two-stroke engines and worried about the increasing number of smog alerts.

But conservatives disagree. City councillor Claude Goasguen of President Jacques Chirac's UMP party says the eco-warriors are determined to transform Paris into a museum.

"They've already cracked down on the car, now they are targeting motorbikes ... the next thing will be bicycles which get in the way of pedestrians. In the end, no one will be allowed to move in Paris at all."