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Parisians keep cycling following transport strikes as mayor pledges 100 per cent bike friendly city

Anne Hidalgo has promised a bike lane on every street in French capital if re-elected

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who is seeking re-election in next month’s municipal elections, has promised a bike lane on every street in the French capital, with her pledge coming as data reveal that locals who took to their bikes to get around the city during transport strikes have kept the cycling habit.

The Socialist politician, who has headed the city’s administration since 2014, says that she wants the city to be “100 per cent” bike-friendly by 2024, making it a key part of her re-election campaign.

Strikes against planned pension reforms in December saw the city’s transport system grind to a near-halt, with many citizens either buying new bikes or dusting down existing ones to get around.

And according to thelocal.fr, it appears that the habit has continued into the New Year, with bike counters recording more than double the amount of bicycle traffic compared to 12 months previously.

Citing an article in Le Parisien, it says that in January 2019, an average of 38 cyclists an hour were recorded passing the locations where the counts were taken, but last month that had soared to 88 people an hour.

Jean-Sébastien Catier from the city’s cycling campaign group, Paris en Selle – Paris in the Saddle, said that the numbers were “a sign that the surge in cyclists is a real phenomenon

“The strike showed that [the bicycle] is a dependable and credible means of transport,” he added.

In an article on Hidalgo’s Paris en Commun campaign website, council candidates Audrey Pulvar and Christophe Najdovski – the latter has served as the city’s deputy mayor for transport – outline the plans to make the city greener and provide streets for all, rather than prioritising motor vehicles.

They point out that measures taken by Hidalgo in her first term have resulted in motor traffic falling by 22.6 per cent between 2014 and 2020, and 8 per cent last year alone, resulting in big improvements in air quality.

They also pointed out that taking space away from motor traffic and giving it to bicycles is a more efficient use of road space.

“A private car occupies approximately 10m² of public space to circulate only 5 per cent of the time and transport, on average, only 1.1 people,” they wrote.

“During the transport strike, the bicycle proved to be more efficient and faster than the private car. There were more cyclists than point hour cars on the streets of Paris.

“For example, there were twice as many bikes as cars on Boulevard Voltaire during rush hour. This boulevard has two lanes for motorized travel (ie 6.50 metres wide), as well as two parking lanes (2 × 1.80 metre more), and two bicycle paths (1.95 metres each , or 3.90 metres wide).

“Cycle paths, which consume much less space, have enabled twice as many people to get around,” they explained.

“Rediscovering the human dimension, strengthening the conviviality of common spaces, designing cities where it is good to walk and good to cycle, where it becomes possible again to play, to do sports, cities for children, for the elderly, for the most vulnerable and for people with disabilities, these are new freedoms and a city model centered on the priority given to active modes, walking and cycling, and to public transport,” they added.

“Streets for everyone, green, at a time when the climate challenge requires us to reinvent and, why not, re-enchant our cities.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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4 comments

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antigee | 4 years ago
1 like

all good stuff...a politician grabbing the issue and forcing thru difficult policies that long term will make city living better in my opinion...but I do get confused by the headlines...my understanding is that the City of Paris of which Anne Hidalgo is Mayor is the central 20 arondisment (sp?) population around 2m about 20% of the population (sort of guess) of metropolitan Paris and no idea what % of the road structure possibly pretty small...hopefully outer areas will follow.. a battle won not the war?

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HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
2 likes

'a bike lane on every street in the French capital'

I don't think that's right. I had a good look at Anne Hidalgo's manifesto here, and it is really good on walking, cycling & the environment.

One of the promises is one "velorue" (where people on foot and on bikes have priority) in every arrondissement; another is a protected cycle lane on every Parisian bridge.

She is also proposing to remove half of all parking spaces in Paris, to build bike lanes, widen pavements, and create 'park-lets'.

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eburtthebike | 4 years ago
5 likes

Why is this proposed for Paris and, apart from Manchester, not in the UK?   Most local authority transport plans are full of talk about the environment, pollution, congestion and praise cycling and walking to the skies.  But then they spend all the money on building more roads and making things worse.  Cognitive dissonance at a corporate level.

Someone just sent me this link, feel free to sign https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/public-transport-not-road-buildin...

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Philh68 replied to eburtthebike | 4 years ago
3 likes

I’d call it at the political level, corporations merely see their stupid decisions as an opportunity.

Politicians like to grandstand. Little things that have measurable benefit and are less costly are overlooked because they’re at the bottom of the food chain. They don’t attract corporate interest because there’s little money to be made, therefore little money is spent on schmoozing politicians to make them happen, and because they don’t cost much they have little in the way of bragging rights for politicians, who seem to think spending billions of our money is the way to be re-elected.

Cycling lobbyists on the other hand don’t think big enough, they seem to think we’ve got to talk projects down in the hope of attracting a few crumbs. When the few crumbs do arrive, it just gets us another piece disconnected from all the other pieces that need to be joined to make a cycleway network. As if the world would ever tolerate roads that didn’t connect.

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