From Monday, nearly 200 kilometres of road lanes in and around Paris are closed to ordinary traffic to facilitate travel for athletes, emergency services and others driving to and from the 2024 Olympic Games, which open in 11 days' time.
The Olympic lanes, marked "Paris 2024", cover 185 km across four major motorways leading into Paris, the city ring road and certain thoroughfares within the centre.
They will remain in place until 15 September.
Only drivers with prior authorisation will be allowed to use them: official delegations, emergency services, public transport, transport for people with limited mobility and licensed taxis.
The goal is to allow athletes to reach any of the competition venues scattered around Paris and its outskirts within 30 minutes of setting off from the Olympic Village in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, as the city promised when it first bid for the Games.
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Uber drivers put out
Drivers caught using the lanes without permission face fines of €135.
Ride-share services such as Uber and Bolt are not eligible, and drivers were complaining as the lanes came into force that they stood to lose out.
"When clients see on the app that I won't arrive for 20 or 30 minutes, they'll cancel," Uber driver Abdallah told Franceinfo.
On regular roads ride-share drivers typically use the lanes reserved for buses and taxis, but with surveillance cameras and police enforcing the Olympic restrictions, they'll be forced to merge with normal traffic – unlike official taxis licensed by the city of Paris.
"It doesn't make sense, we do the same job," grumbled Abdallah.
While most of the Olympic lanes will return to normal use after the Games, Paris hopes to permanently reserve some of them for carpooling and and public transport.
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