The pandemic has caused much disruption to our world, but some of the side-effects have been positive. One flag-waving example is the plan to ban everyday traffic from the Champs Elysee in Paris and turn it into a tree-filled cycle and pedestrian precinct. By Jeremy Torr.

Paris, France, February 2021. When Baron Georges-Eugène Hausmann razed much of plague-raddled post-medieval Paris to the ground and imposed his grand plan on the city in the mid-1800’s, he saw the crown jewel as the Champs-Elysées (Elysian Fields).

He planned and built the iconic tree-lined parade as a core city attraction where all of the city’s residents could wander freely and enjoy the beauty and grandeur of nature, the good life of food, wine and open air, and stunning architectural design too.

Today, according to the Champs-Elysées committee (CEc), a group set up to ensure the thoroughfare retains its reputation, “the mythical avenue has over the last 30 years lost its splendour, and has been progressively abandoned by Parisians.” No longer they say, is it a magnet for lovers, artists, wine drinkers and seekers of joie de vivre. An average day sees more than 60,000 vehicles and tour buses roar up and down its tarmac, honking, screeching and belching fumes as they swarm around the feet of the Arc de Triomphe before stopping in front so passengers can rush into a designer store and fill their label bags. To Parisians, rather than being the world’s most beautiful and accessible avenue, it is simply “looking worn out,” said CEc president Jean-Noël Reinhardt.

But Paris’s new socialist, green-friendly mayor, Ana María Hidalgo Aleu, has other ideas. She has given the green light to convert the sadly abused thoroughfare into a new egalitarian pedestrian gardens just like the Baron originally envisaged. Boosted by the success of several localised experiments to ban cars and introduce cycle and pedestrian friendly access routes in key areas, and spurred on by the introductions of pandemic-led lockdowns and movement restrictions, Hidalgo has announced a €250 million project that promises to turn today’s central Paris racetrack into what she calls an “extraordinary garden.”

The project, envisioned by Philippe Chiambaretta and the design team at architectural design house PCA-Stream who are responsible for the transformation, says that the plan will hand back the road to the people of Paris. This will, they add, “pacify the hyper-place and re-enchant the hyper-empty” through the reintroduction  of  nature, infrastructure, mobility, use, and smart construction thinking.

“Our vision proposes to build on the symbolic power of the Champs-Élysées to engage national both public and private talent, and to transform the avenue into an urban demonstrator of a sustainable, desirable and inclusive city,” says Chiambaretta.

The revitalisation move dovetails neatly into Paris’s ongoing plans to host the Olympic Games in 2024, with its focus on sustainability and people-friendly spaces. This, says Hidalgo, will help make it the showcase that Chiambaretta promises. New bike lanes will be added, along with better natural drainage and tree planting areas. The carbon footprint of the avenue will drop by over 50%, and the whole area will offer a more pleasant place for socialising humans to gather says PCA-Stream.

Hidalgo explained the redevelopment was in part prompted by what Parisians have labelled “coronapistes”: the 50-plus kilometers of cycleways introduced on major city roads during lockdown. These, along with a further 10 kilometres of delineated cycleways on the design boards will help bring what Hidalgo describes as an “ecological transformation of our city.”

She has also outlined plans for the restriction of petrol vehicles along the edges of the city’s major river, La Seine. “I have just given the green light to the creation of seven new  cycleways of this type,” she said recently, noting that the overall goal was to produce a “city of fifteen minutes” where locals could reach almost all the facilities they need for daily life within a quarter of an hour.

“With the transformation of (these routes) their use must adapt,” Hidalgo said. “The crossings of Paris by car … can no longer be done as before, it is something that must be forgotten," she added. "The city needs to evolve.”