{"id":15369,"date":"2022-06-30T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discerningcyclist.com\/?p=15369"},"modified":"2024-01-15T00:27:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T00:27:27","slug":"how-paris-became-cycling-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discerningcyclist.com\/how-paris-became-cycling-city\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Paris Become a “Cycling City”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like many major cities across Europe, reducing pollution and taking as many cars off of the roads and streets has been an important priority of most local governments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paris is no exception to this. But how did this happen in the city of love, and how much progression have they really made towards being a more bike friendly city?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Paris Cycling Revolution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the pandemic and rising prices of living, more people jumping on bikes as a main or regular mode of transport seems to have occurred globally. Many major cities, such as the obvious candidates: Amsterdam and Copenhagen, have already been through a cycling revolution, as it were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Paris was slightly later to this party in becoming a more cyclist orientated destination. Slowly but surely more and more cycling specific infrastructure has been added, such as bike lanes and routes. This has largely been due to the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo of the Socialist Party, wanting to take more cars off of Paris\u2019 busy roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the increased infrastructure, Paris also benefits from having their own version of London\u2019s<\/a> famous Boris bikes. These are called the V\u00e9lib’ M\u00e9tropole and are a public bike sharing transportation service, which is a solid alternative to driving<\/a> and adding to the fumes and pollution in and around the city. <\/p>\n\n\n

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SOURCE: Unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

How Many Bike Paths Are There in Paris?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Currently there are around 700km worth of cycle paths as well as routes around Paris. Although just an estimation, it\u2019s hard not to agree that this is still a really solid amount of space to be dedicated to cyclists and bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Anne Hidalgo was elected mayor of Paris<\/a> in 2014, she is estimated to have had 299km worth of bicycle lanes installed around the city. Which in turn gave an increase of 35% of bike friendly streets throughout Paris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic, Paris saw an increase in temporary bike lanes (which are not the same nor as effective as protected bike lanes) being set up around the city to help provide a safer riding environment for cyclists while there were less cars on the roads. Many of these happen to stay after the pandemic eased which is great for those choosing to cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, these bike paths are also brilliant because they are also multi-use. For example the ever growing electric scooter community also benefit from having improved and increased use of bike paths throughout the city. Once again, taking more cars off of Paris\u2019 streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does Every Street in Paris Have Bike Lanes?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although many more streets in Paris do now have bike lanes, whether they be protected or temporary ones, sadly not all streets have them as of yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many streets are gradually being turned into more bike friendly places, in addition to more green spaces being created. But, improving the infrastructure for cyclists will never be an overnight fix and it will unfortunately take a little more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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