Eiffel Tower in Paris — The road closure is part of mayor Anne Hidalgo’s push to fight Paris’s exceptionally high pollution. Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Paris mayor heralds ‘reconquest of Seine’ as riverbank traffic banned

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Leftwing parties vote unanimously in favour of closing right bank of river to vehicles from Tuileries to Bastille

Paris city council has approved the banning of all vehicles from the major road running along the right bank of the river Seine in a bitterly contested vote.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed what she called a historic decision that meant the “end of the urban motorway in Paris and the reconquest of the Seine”.

The plan, which will be published as an official decree in a matter of weeks, will permanently shut to traffic 3.3km of the riverside road from the tunnel at the Tuileries gardens near the Louvre to the Henri IV tunnel near the Bastille.

Before it closed earlier this year for the annual Paris Plage city beach project, 43,000 cars a day passed over the stretch of road. It will eventually be replaced by gardens, parks, restaurants and cafes.The city council insists the closure is “definitive”. However, it still needs the approval of the police authority, which has the final word on traffic matters in the capital.

The right bank of the Seine river closed to traffic. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

Paris’s police prefect, Michel Cadot, told the council his job was to ensure the “fluidity” of the city’s traffic. He announced the setting up of a “technical committee” to meet next week and then every two months to study the knock-on effects on traffic in neighbouring areas and the impact on noise and air pollution levels. The committee would report after six months and after a year, he said.

Cadot warned the pedestrianisation would have to be reversed if the closure caused traffic chaos.

A city hall spokesperson said there was no reason why the road would be reopened to vehicles. The left bank road along the Seine between the Musée d’Orsay and the Pont de l’Alma was closed to traffic in January 2013.

“Of course, we don’t have a crystal ball, but we are convinced that if there are traffic jams in the short term, they will evaporate in the long term as people change their habits and use other forms of transport,” she said.

Artist's impression of how the right bank of the Seine will look after it is fully pedestrianised. — Artist’s impression of how the right bank of the Seine will look after it is fully pedestrianised. Photograph: Luxigon

“The mayor is convinced that we will see the same result in terms of less traffic and lower pollution as we did with the left bank highway closure, in which case there will be no reason for the police prefect to object to it.”

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She added: “Hypothetically, it would be possible for the police prefect to order the reopening of the highway, but in this case there would have to be dialogue between him and the mayor.”

The right bank closure was unanimously approved by all of the Paris council’s leftwing parties, including the Greens, on Monday. On the right, members of the opposition Les Républicains voted against.

Motorist groups vehemently opposed both left and right bank road closures, accusing the city’s socialist administration of a vendetta against drivers.

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