Parisian Pedestrianisation

[Grzrd]

While French cousin New Orleans wrestles with the question of whether to "boulevardize'" part of I-10, this article reports that Paris is about to "pedestrianise" a 2.5 km section of a two-lane road along the the left bank:

It's the latest battle in Paris's war on the private car: a pedestrian "reconquest" of the banks of the Seine.
After a slanging match with the right, the city's Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoë has won his quest to break up the two-lane urban motorway that has run along the edge of the Seine since the 1960s, and return Paris's riverside world heritage sites to walkers and cyclists.
From next month, a stretch of more than 1km (0.6 miles) on the right bank near the Hôtel de Ville will see the first narrowing of the road to make way for pedestrian corridors, riverside walkways, bars and cafes. Then in the spring the final promised masterpiece of pedestrianisation will be unveiled: a 2.5km car-free zone on the left bank, between the Musée d'Orsay and the Pont de l'Alma, with a riverside park, pedestrian promenades, floating botanic gardens, flower-market barges, sports courts, restaurants and even perhaps an archipelago of artificial islands.
The pedestrianisation of one of Europe's most picturesque urban riversides means the death knell for the Seine's non-stop riverside expressways. These were the pride of Georges Pompidou in the 60s when France's love affair with the car was at its height. Opened in 1967 by him, under the slogan "Paris must adapt the to car", the dual carriageway with perhaps the best view in France allowed a speedy crossing of Paris from west to east. But environmentalists have long complained it was a dreadful, polluting waste of architectural heritage ....
But the pedestrianisation has not been without controversy. This year, the then right-wing prime minister, François Fillon, who was im the running to become a Paris MP and reportedly harboured mayoral ambitions for 2014, announced the state was vetoing the project on the grounds that it was badly thought-out. Delanoë hit back at what he called an electorally inspired, government "diktat" that went against Parisians' interests. Motorists also complained that traffic in Paris would be hugely upset, with drivers forced to clog alternative routes across the city. Around 2,000 cars an hour use the left-bank expressway during rush hour, according to City hall which argues that motorists would see only six minutes added to their journey under the plans ....

Below is a computer image of the car-free zone:


qguy's great analysis notwithstanding, I wonder if Inga Saffron, CNU et al will try to use this as an example to push for a "pedestrianised" cover over I-95 in Philadelphia's waterfront area?

[vtk]

TLDR; quick question, is this a permanent pedestrianization, or a summer-only thing like I think I've heard of Paris doing in the past?