Ceci n'est pas une autoroute: Paris bans pre-1997 cars in city center - Roadshow

If there's one city that's attempted more than any other to figure out how to rid its city center of pollution, it's Paris. The French capital has looked into multiple solutions, most of which involve removing certain cars from the road on certain days, based on license plates and other factors. Starting this summer, it's going with a more heavy-handed approach.

Le Monde reports that, as of July 1, Paris will ban vehicles registered before 1997 from the city center on weekdays. Motorcycles registered before 2000 will also fall under this new rule. Eventually, Paris plans to have a system in place whereby no vehicle more than 10 years old will be on Paris' streets, whether it's weekdays or weekends.

In order to keep track of which vehicles are polluting the most, Parisian vehicles will fall under one of six different classifications, depending on their effect on the environment. The hope is that, one day, only the cleanest vehicles will be allowed to traverse the city. Le Monde points out that this graduated system is put in place to limit the pushback from residents and create a more measured adaption to the eventual end result.