Paris Is Going Dutch: Cycling in the City of Lights
Lior Steinberg
Co-Founder & Urban Planner @ Humankind | Speaker | Writing on Human-Centric Cities | Author of the Children's Book "The Car That Wanted to Be a Bike"
I was in Paris last week. Here's my experience from this in the making bicycle city.
In short, there's lots of work to be done. But Paris is huge, and you can't build a cycling city in 5 years.
Evolution, not revolution.
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The older bike lanes are narrow, you can't ride side by side, and you need to watch out from doors and people. Interactions are bad, and in general, it's not for all abilities and ages.
My grade is ?? 1/5 croissants
Paris' public bike-sharing scheme is amazing. It's called Vélib (vélo + liberté) and it offers regular bicycles and e-bikes.
?????????? 5/5 croissants
Champs-élysées had a narrow and bumpy bike path that just stops every now and then (bus stops, intersections).on the other hand, you get to cycle through the most famous boulevard in the world.
???? 2/5 croissants
Every second street in the city center is under some kind of a tactical change. Woonerfs, 30km/h limits, cancellation of parking, or tactical bike lanes. It's just amazing, no other city did anything close to that.
?????????? 5/5
But this is the "easy" part. Big parts of Paris are completely car-oriented. With so much space for cars, tactical lanes are not enough. Especially in the crazy intersections. You just find yourself in the middle of a highway.
To fix that, Paris needs something else.
This brings me to Rue de Rivoli. WOW.
That's the change the city needs. (Almost) completely closing down big streets to cars, creating very wide paths. It is something else, I'm telling you. Families, children, workers and the elderly.
Paris is not Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but it created overnight a world-level bicycle street. If it will do it all over the city, it will get 5 out of 5 ??????????
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2022 Chair of the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization
3 年Well said
Freelance Contributor at InvestigateWest
3 年Great mini photo essay. Thanks. Merci bien! ???? In the wake of the IPCC's new report on climate change i'm looking at new potential for 'active transport' in the Pacific Northwest to decarbonize and how it's doing relative to other places. Ideas? PM me.
Building SuburVAN to free suburban commuters and communities from car dependence
3 年The biggest challenge lies in (new) cyclists education. The pandemic put 1000s of new cyclists (and e-scooter riders) on the streets who wear helmets but think traffic lights are decorative and cross on red light regularly, not even slowing down. And I’m an urban cyclist since 1993. To survive so far, I behaved like a car, respecting signals and driving in the middle of the lane to be visible, and overtaking cars only while they’re stopped.
Simone Z Leao