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French city pays locals to leave their cars at home

A northern French city has begun paying its residents for every day that they leave their car at home during rush hour, in an effort to reduce pollution and traffic congestion.

Published: 5 September 2023 17:38 CEST

French city pays locals to leave their cars at home

The scheme aims to cut congestion on the A1 and A23 motorways in Lille. Photo by Denis CHARLET / AFP

The Lille metropolitan area – covering the city in north-east France and its suburbs – is offering car-owning residents €2 for every journey that they don’t make by car during rush hour.

Lille launched its ‘éconobus’ scheme on Monday, initially as a nine-month pilot, offering a cash bonus to everyone who either carpools or uses public transport during rush hour, or those who work from home.

The idea is to relieve traffic congestion on the A1 and A23 motorways during the morning and evening rush hour, and also lower air pollution levels.

Sébastien Le Prêtre, vice-president of the Lille metropolitan area, said: “We won’t be the first in Europe to introduce it, since our source of inspiration is the Netherlands, where the scheme has proved its effectiveness.

“But we’ll be the first metropolis in France to embark on this experiment, which will run for nine months.”

The regional authority says that it expects 600 fewer cars per day on the A1 during rush hour, and 300 fewer on the A23.

Around 3,000 volunteers are already signed up to the pilot scheme – it does not require people to give up their cars, but incentivises leaving it at home during rush hour with €2 paid for every day that the user either works from home, car-shares or uses public transport.

It’s largely targeted at people who live in the suburbs and commute into Lille.

Although this is the first such scheme of its kind in France, the French government does offer €100 to people who sign up to car-sharing schemes.

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What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170.

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France.

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255. Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’.

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable.

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

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