Parisians ride bicycles near the Eiffel Tower. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
Official measurements have shown that Paris is rapidly becoming a transport city for cyclists. The survey of how people get around Paris today was conducted using GPS trackers by scientists at L’Institut Paris Région, Europe’s largest urban planning and environmental agency.
The Institute transport report was released on April 4th. It noted that there was a revolution in the way in which Parisians now travel from the suburbs to the town center, especially at peak times, thanks partially to the development of many kilometers of cycle paths.
The cyclists now on the streets and paths of central Paris will not be spandex-clad professionals like those on the Tour de France, but on a regular basis transport cyclists.
The Paris Région Institute conducted the survey for a consortium of fourteen private and non-private partners, including local governments and railway corporations.
Reporting on the institute’s surveyFrench television channel 20 minutes told viewers that “the capital’s bike paths are always full.”
Between October 2022 and April 2023, 3,337 Parisians aged 16 to 80 were equipped with GPS trackers to record their journeys for seven consecutive days. In the suburbs, where public transport is less dense, automobile transport proved to be crucial type of mobility. But when traveling from the outskirts of Paris to the middle, the variety of cyclists now far exceeds the variety of drivers, an enormous change in comparison with five years ago. The trips recorded were mostly commuter trips.
The city’s socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has pushed through quite a few anti-automobile measures during her two terms in office – akin to reducing the variety of parking spaces, restricting access to SUVs and shutting some major roads to motorists – and the newest poll shows this attest to their policies, none of which have sparked the type of protests for which the French capital has long been famous.
In short, eliminating cars has turn out to be much more popular than its automobile critics predicted, and Paris has turn out to be cleaner and healthier in addition.
Remarkably, and without the proliferation of conspiracy theories common outside France, Paris can be putting into practice the homegrown concept of the “15-minute city.” Creation of urban areas where access to amenities is close by and due to this fact requires less driving.
