The city of Paris is trying to convince pedestrians to respect traffic rules and drivers to respect pedestrians in an effort to save lives. Posters are now lining rue de Rivoli beside the Hotel de Ville—a very busy shopping area—with silhouettes of people who have been hurt or died last year because of someone not following the laws. The sign says, “Today, Paris says Stop. In 2006, there were 64 lethal traffic accidents and 7,000 wounded.” (Actually, the number of deaths seems low. Listening to the Houston news, I swear 64 die in traffic accidents every week here.) Next to that is one of the silhouettes: “Isabelle, 52-years-old, was returning to her home. A motorist in a big hurry knocked her down.”I also saw an ad in a city hall magazine with a photo of a crosswalk and a man walking alongside it—not on it. The caption translated into English was, “Everyday we go outside the lines and someday, we will just stay there.”
In my opinion, both Parisian pedestrians and drivers tend to make up the rules as they go along. It’s very common to see people crossing against the lights, crossing outside of the crosswalks, jay-walking… And then, of course, the drivers…oh la la. This may be the reason a group of police (always at least three) often stands on the side of the street and randomly pulls over cars and motorcycles. I could never find out what triggered their gesturing to the lucky drivers but I saw this several times a week where ever in the city I was walking.
And then there are the parking meter ladies that write the parking tickets (I never saw any parking meter guys and there aren’t any meters but a green parking dispenser). Again, I never figured out how drivers knew when they were supposed to buy a parking ticket from the big green dispenser on the sidewalk—maybe all the time on every street, which is why I saw so
many parking tickets on vehicles! This guy won't like coming back to his car... The price of a ticket is 11 euros if your time is expired and 35 euros when parked in a "no parking" area. This car may be stolen or abandoned because how could you have so many parking tickets in 24 hours??Rolinka and I almost got knocked off our feet in a café one day by a guy rushing out the door—the parking meter lady was getting ready to write him a ticket. He hopped in his car and drove off--parking meter lady with pen still poised over her ticket pad. And when I thought I’d finally figured out that the zagged yellow line on the pavement next to the curb meant “do not park,” cars still parked there. So maybe that’s not what it meant—when you’re not driving, you’re not aware of the laws.
I also don’t know how Paris drivers know the direction of all the one-way streets—maybe they don’t, which explains why there are so many cars hovering in the intersections looking to see if they can make a turn, while everyone races past them with horns blaring. And then there are the motorcycles driving down the sidewalks!! Two-wheeled vehicles are allowed to park in marked areas on the sidewalks so how do you expect them to get back to the street without driving on the sidewalks? But sometimes driving a whole block on the sidewalk!??!? Watch out!
These phallic-looking poles (or at least they look phallic to me…) are lined up on every sidewalk in many European countries. I’ve decided they’re
meant to keep the cars on the street and off the sidewalks and to protect the people. It looks like when the cars and the poles collide, the cars lose…(notice the tilting of some of these poles in this picture). I read another American’s blog and she suggested they were there to enforce a no-parking rule. But that’s definitely not true...(what does an American know about Paris traffic rules anyway?)...or, if true, it's not obeyed...PS--I have since found out that these waist-high posts are called les bittes de trottoir. And the word bitte has two meanings: docking post (as on a wharf) and slang for "penis!" Ah HA!
