Bike share
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Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/25590549

I had read all the stories. I had even written a few myself. In just five years, Paris’s cycling modal share has doubled, from 5 percent of all trips in 2020 to 11 percent in 2025. That’s mostly thanks to a total of 870 miles of bike lanes, about half of them installed over the past decade. But now that I’m here, I feel like it’s my duty to tell you the transformation that’s occurred is even more dramatic than described. Since I’ve biked all around Paris for a total of three full days — which clearly makes me an expert — I can say this with confidence: Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city.

And here’s my extremely hot take: biking in Paris might be even more convenient than walking.

That’s saying a lot coming from me, a professional Walker™.

  • No_Maines_Land@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    15 hours ago

    Most bike-friendly cities I’ve visited in the last ten years fall into two categories: 1) a comprehensive network that’s been intentionally incorporated into the infrastructure across decades, or 2) quick-and-dirty changes that work really well on some streets with a comprehensive network to be desired. Paris has built a comprehensive network with mostly quick-and-dirty changes in less than ten years. And it’s obvious just riding around that these changes continue to iterate. I was most delighted to track how the striping below my feet had been scraped and relocated as evidence that the bike lanes had been expanded. It’s a work in progress, and that progress is working.

    I felt that paragraph adressed it pretty clearly. It’s not that Paris is doing better than X Netherland city. It’s that Paris is tackling the problem with a quick and dirty, but still comprehensive, network. An approach that can be modelled in other cities, even without decades of working towards the goal.

    An approach that has inspired me to delegate in my own city as a way to get after this.

    • Humanius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      15 hours ago

      Dutch cities are an example of best practices, Paris is an example of how with some quick changes you can your city on the ladder to the reach the best practices.

      I sadly didn’t really have a good opportunity to look around last time I was in Paris (we were visiting with people who had never been to Paris and we only had a few hours), but I did notice how many more cyclists there were compared to the car-sewer of a city I remember