Environmental aspects: traffic jams and air pollution

In France, poor outdoor air quality is responsible for 40,000 deaths, despite reductions in pollutant emissions between 1990 and 2018. While our individual choices can help change this, the situation cannot change without a significant reduction in road traffic as a whole.

The link between heavy road traffic and poor air quality has been clearly established. This is partly because we are still too dependent on the car. A few national figures illustrate the point: road traffic is increasing by 1.5% a year, and 80% of transport-related pollution (nitrogen oxides, particulates and volatile organic compounds) comes from road transport alone. Road traffic alone emits 1/3 of France's greenhouse gases, and is also a major source of air pollution (nitrogen oxides, particulates, etc.).

Faced with the impact on health and the environment, many European...