France temporarily bans 'even-numbered plates from roads' to curb spiking pollution level

Starting Monday, Paris will only see cars having odd-numbered plates rolling on the roads.

As the city struggles to control pollution, it decided to make public transport free and stop half the city's vehicles from driving by simply banning them from the road, reported News.com.au.

The move came as the city and much of northern France suffered from a choking smog.

In a bid to bring down the pollution level, the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo asked authorities to prevent one in every two cars from taking to roads and make all public transport temporarily free until at least Monday.

Hindalgo posted on Twitter: "I am delighted the state has agreed to put in place a partial driving ban on Monday, which I have been requesting for several days."

Only vehicles with number plates ending in an odd number will be allowed to drive on roads. However, there are exceptions too and they will include vehicles like taxis, electric cars and ambulances.

The ban came as air quality monitors predicted on Saturday that concentrations of potentially dangerous particulates in the air could again go over the recommended maximum.

Paris determines pollution levels by measuring the concentration of particulates with a diameter of less than 10 microns, so-called PM10, in the air.

These particles are emitted by vehicles, heating and heavy industry, and include the most dangerous particles that measure less than 2.5 microns in diameter and can penetrate deep into the lungs and the blood system, leading to cancer.

The safe limit for PM10 is set at 80 micrograms per cubic metre (mcg/m3).

Similar emergency measures were imposed last year on March 17 to curb a particularly bad spike in the air pollution levels.