A dangerous air-pollution spike that has left Paris and much of northern France covered in a thick cloud of toxic smog prompted French authorities to cut the city's traffic in half, starting next week. 
 
 The emergency measure will allow cars with license plates ending in odd numbers to drive on odd-numbered days and vice versa, according to French newspaper Le Monde. The restrictions do not apply to taxis, hybrid or electric cars, and vehicles carrying more than three people. 
 
 See also: London landmarks disappear as unhealthy air pollution spikes in UK 
 
 Earlier this week, Paris cut down speed limits to about 12 miles per hour, according to The Guardian, and made all public transportation free in a bid to discourage Parisians from driving. 
 
 Air pollution has gotten so bad this week in the City of Light that the Eiffel Tower seemed to nearly disappear within a haze of smog. Winds swept the noxious mix of pollutants across the English Channel to the United Kingdom and other parts of Western Europe. 
 
 French air-quality monitoring agency Airparif blamed the smog on seasonal weather patterns and emissions from farms and vehicle traffic. A persistent area of high pressure has caused sinking winds that trap the pollutants at lower levels of the atmosphere over northern France. 
 
 A similar air-pollution crisis blanketed the cityscape in smog around this time last year, prompting the French government to enact the same emergency driving ban. 
 
 Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had called on the French government to limit the number of cars on the road earlier this week, but French Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal resisted taking such drastic measures in hopes that the situation would improve. But on Saturday, Hidalgo announced via Twitter that the government had agreed to her requests. 
 
 "The Parisians' health is not negotiable," she tweeted, according to a Google translation. "I stand by my request for [the] establishment of alternating traffic." 
 
 La santé des Parisiens ne se négocie pas. Je maintiens ma demande de mise en place de la circulation alternée. — Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) March 19, 2015 
 
 Airparif measures the concentration of PM-10 particles, or those with a diameter of 10 microns or less. These particles are hazardous because they can lodge deep inside human lungs, and cause breathing problems for people with asthma, as well as cancer in cases of longterm exposure. 
 
 The dangerously high levels of PM-10 particles prompted Airparif to raise its air-pollution alert to the highest possible level on its index last week, before dropping to its second highest on Saturday. 

 The Eiffel Tower is photographed through the smog in Paris. Police have lowered speed limits and ordered a halt to trash burning as part of emergency measures triggered by a surge in air pollution. (Photo: Jacques Brinon, AP) 
 
 Officials in Paris are banning half of the city's personal vehicles from taking to the streets in an effort to limit smog and bring down pollution levels. 
 
 Mayor Anne Hidalgo asked authorities to prevent one in every two cars from taking to the streets and to make all public transport in the city and surrounding towns temporarily free, France 24 reported. 
 
 "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," Hidalgo said Saturday on Twitter. 
 
 La #pollution est une question de santé publique qui nous concerne tous : http://t.co/u6w0reXOkapic.twitter.com/rmi0BXP3ZF — Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) March 20, 2015 
 
 Only personal vehicles with odd-numbered license plates will be allowed on the road. Some others such as taxis, ambulance and electric cars will also be permitted. 
 
 Thursday was the third straight day that air pollution registered far above European safety thresholds, the Associated Press reported. 
 
 Similar emergency measures were implemented in Paris last year during a particularly bad spike in the pollution levels, France 24 reported. 
 
 Other cities have taken similar measures to combat smog. Ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' summit in Beijing last year, only half of the Chinese capital's cars were allowed on the roads each day and polluting factories in neighboring provinces were shut down or forced to scale back operations to lessen smog. 
 
 In the USA, Los Angeles has topped the list of cities with the worst smog, violating federal health standards for ozone an average of 122 days a year, according to theLos Angeles Times. 
 
 "Air pollution is not just a nuisance or the haze we see on the horizon; it's literally putting our health in danger," Bonnie Holmes-Gen, senior policy director of the American Lung Association in California, told the paper. 
 
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– Think LA smog is bad? Air pollution got so nasty in Paris that authorities are cutting the city's traffic by half and reducing speed limits to roughly 12 miles per hour, Mashable reports. Starting tomorrow, personal vehicles with odd-number and even-number license plates will be banned on alternating days. (But electric and hybrid cars, taxis, and vehicles with over three people get a free pass.) Smog in the City of Light nearly obscured the Eiffel Tower this week, and air pollution topped European safety levels for the third straight day on Thursday, USA Today reports. Paris enacted similar emergency measures last year when pollution levels got high. "I am delighted" by the partial driving ban, "which I have been requesting for several days," tweeted Mayor Anne Hidalgo.