How to (Quickly) Build a Cycling City - Paris

[Music] if you've read anything about urban planning online then you've probably heard about the changes happening in paris mayor annie delgo has become famous for her initiatives to reduce car use in paris and provide more space for walking cycling and public transit especially cycling recently the paris government has announced they plan to make the city 100 cyclable by 2026 which would be an incredibly fast transition now i've been to paris many times before and the buffet was pretty good but the last time i was in paris was way back in 2008 and during that trip we rented bicycles here's my wife holding an artifact called a paper map kind of like a print out of google maps that you could buy in a store in the olden days at that time paris was scary for cycling and our experience there actually caused us to stop renting bicycles while on holiday for almost a decade so when i heard about what was happening in paris i had to see it for myself and thanks to my generous supporters on patreon i was able to take a not just bikes business trip to film this video if you'd like to help me make more videos like this one then check out patreon.com not just bikes the 500 kilometer trip to paris was easy of course the high-speed tally train goes directly from amsterdam central to garden or in paris though i picked it up in amsterdam scripple airport because it's easier for me to get there from where i live i have to say it's so nice to have multiple train stations to choose from and when the high-speed trains are this good it would be crazy to fly or drive now i had read about what was happening in paris but there's no better way to explore this new infrastructure than with a local so i was really happy to meet up with the man behind altis play the excellent french language cycling channel so if you notice that there's a guy in an orange sweater in the majority of my cycling shots then you'll know why he even provided me with an e-bike to use for the day which was really great though after a few hours of riding on this bike i am completely convinced that i will only ever own upright dutch bicycles and how am i supposed to cycle around paris on a bike without a front basket to hold my baguette and flowers altus took me on a 30 kilometer trip through some of the newest bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in paris and wow the changes are incredible in my head i was comparing the experience to cycling there in 2008 but most of this is new even just in the past two or three years standing on the corner of boulevard to sebastopol and rude rivoli at rush hour you can really see the changes in action there are so many people cycling that it's easy to forget that you're in paris when you see videos online with lots of cyclists in paris they're almost always filmed at or near this intersection it's also amazing to see just how much space has been taken away from cars i remember the city being overwhelmed with car traffic but is slowly starting to be tamed there are several lanes that were built during the covid lockdowns which you can identify by the yellow paint and it looks like many of these will become permanent some of the permanent infrastructure is really good such as this cycling path around a bus stop though they may want to consider raised crossings for pedestrians and tree-lined paths like this are really nice to see as well there are also many new bicycle counters like this one to show just how many people are using these new cycling paths and some official bicycle wayfounding has been put in place which originally started as a project by cycling advocates interestingly electric scooters and similar vehicles are very popular in paris these are mostly illegal in the netherlands so it was strange to be cycling next to so many of them paris still has the same value bike share system that we used back in 2008 and it even has electric bicycles to rent along with a regular acoustic bicycles although some of these bikes are in really rough shape altus play has a video on his channel about the challenges of finding a bike that actually works it might be time for some upgrades believe you may have heard how a former highway along the river send was close to cars and opened up to all other activities this space formerly used as a highway is now open for people to sit or for kids to play it will be really interesting to see how this space evolves as they de-pave it and turn it into a proper park these public water tabs were really great too the world needs more of these especially this kind that dispense sparkling water sparkling water from a public water fountain while there were a lot of people around there weren't too many people cycling here because this is more of a leisure space than a through fair most people cycling were on this comfortable two-way cycling path parallel to the river the famous champ de lisa now has a one-way cycling path on each side which is a major improvement and paris has plans for an even more impressive design in the future there are many tunnels through the city that have been turned over to cyclists as well this one under the arc de triomphe was an older tunnel that was closed to motor vehicles because the height clearance was no longer sufficient but this one was just close to cars because paris doesn't want them here annie delgo was re-elected on a promise of removing 70 000 parking spaces from the streets of paris which will fundamentally change streetscapes like this one you can already see this in some places where bicycle parking has been installed in a former car parking spot they even have designated parking spaces for cargo bikes which is great because these really can be car replacement bicycles the most absurd change and by that i mean absurdly great is on route rivoli where the majority of the road has been turned into a massive two-way cycling path and the remaining lane of car traffic is for taxis and public transport this cycling path does not need to be this big here it could have been made half this size and still been more than enough for the amount of cyclists but what's clear in paris is that this isn't just about cycling it's a political statement building this road with a small two-way cycle track off to the side is what every other city would do but here they are making a strong statement that the roads of paris will no longer be ruled by motor vehicles so you're probably thinking this all sounds pretty great and it is the transformations that have happened in paris in such a short time are nothing short of extraordinary and should absolutely be an inspiration to cities all over the world but the glowing articles you may have read online are only telling one side of the story there's a famous effect called paris syndrome experienced mostly by people from the far east who have heard wondrous stories about beautiful paris and are devastated when they visit and find that the reality of paris is much different than what they expected i feel like there's a similar effect with the bicycle infrastructure because if you've only heard about cycling in paris from brent todarion's twitter account give him a follow by the way he's great then you might be disappointed when you visit because there are a lot of rough edges and it's very much a work in progress if you deviate even slightly from the streets that have been improved then you're very quickly dropped back into the old paris i remember weaving between cars on traffic clogged streets and it's sometimes pretty nerve-wracking to cross huge intersections like this one without any protection for cyclists while the repurposed car tunnel under the arc de triomphe is great it's only useful if you're cycling in that direction and the traffic circle above is as insane as it's ever been it's fine though we only saw one crash in the three minutes we were standing there this guy was brave enough to go straight through the middle of it but when we cycled through we stuck close to the far edge this was still the most nervous i've been on a bicycle in many many years in amsterdam and most of the netherlands the streets became bicycle friendly over the span of several decades and roads were redesigned when they were due for resurfacing or other major construction work in paris they're not waiting decades nor should they but that does mean that the infrastructure is being installed as quickly as possible even if it means installing something that's not exactly an ideal design for example here a two-way cycling path switches sides right before an intersection resulting in an awkward and confusing traffic light and transition and it makes for bizarre connections to a street like this that would require crossing the road twice to access the way you're supposed to unsurprisingly many people just take the most direct route to where they're going but that means cycling the wrong way down the street another example is here at the end of the runway-sized bicycle path on rue de rivoli the bicycle lane continues into a shared space with pedestrians with no indication of which way you should go i assume you'll get used to this but i was confused cycling here for the first time one of the things i found very dangerous coming from the netherlands is that there are very few traffic lights for bicycles and when there's no dedicated bicycle traffic light you're supposed to follow the pedestrian signals but these signals are not always clear or visible when cycling so they can lead to dangerous situations did you notice that i just ran a red light here because i didn't some intersections do have bicycle signals and more of these will inevitably be installed but in the meantime you have to be really careful besides the close calls at red lights there were a few scary moments like this painted bicycle gutter where i got cut off by a truck coming up to this area under construction so alt has decided to soften fix the problem at least temporarily wide bicycle lanes are great of course but it also means space for trucks to park in them but at least this woman could cycle past so that's an improvement and of course there are still plenty of paris drivers in paris i even got to see someone driving backwards down the street something that i haven't seen since i lived in belgium at least this guy stopped for the pedestrians in the zebra crossing so it's better than brussels speaking of which pedestrian priority at zebra crossings is not always clear and actually depends on whether or not the pedestrians have a light so which of these crossings have pedestrian priority and which have cyclist priority well it's hard to tell especially when cycling and some but not all red lights have this sign which allows cyclists to treat the red light like a yield sign but since this isn't well known it can result in people getting upset about cyclists running red lights when it's actually permitted it's likely that these inconsistencies will get worked out and people will start to understand the rules over time but it's another example of the growing pains that paris is going through by changing so quickly of course pedestrian priority has always been a problem in paris for example technically pedestrians have priority over cars at this crossing but how many people are actually brave enough or stupid enough to start walking unsurprisingly these people wait until all the cars have passed before attempting to cross but while it may be a little rough around the edges paris is becoming a better city and it's changing fast too many cities i've visited are wasting time on pilot projects that spend years telling us what we already know about good street design but here they're moving forward as quickly as possible and that's great you can't change a city overnight but paris is doing the next best thing i just can't wait to see what it's like the next time i visit which will be a lot sooner than last time if you'd also like to support the channel visit patreon.com not just bikes

Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 630,467

Keywords: urban planning, paris, anne hidalgo, 100% cyclable city, cycling infrastructure, how to improve your city, paris cycling, cycling in paris, paris bicycles, velo, urban design, paris cycling 2021, paris cycling revolution

Id: sI-1YNAmWlk

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Maleficent_Resolve44]

A lot of news has been coming out recently about Paris' cycling changes and so NotJustBikes went there to film a video about the topic and to see the changes for himself.

[u/salmmons]

Sevilla in Spain is also a great example of a city who built a pretty substantial cycling network in 10 year for people who complain about "no one will cycle when it's hot"

[u/mansarde75]

I thought this was going to be another piece fawning over the recent improvements in cycling infrastructure but it's much more nuanced. Please watch the second half of the video.

While I'm not gonna knock over what's been done so far, the fact is cycling in most of the city is indeed still rather unpleasant, dangerous and sometimes puzzling, when confronted with frankly absurd road designs.

The municipality is aiming for 30% of trips by bicycle by 2030. I feel like this might be over ambitious the way things are going, but I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong (and that's just Paris proper, the suburbs are another story altogether).

I'll reply below with a translation of an article summing up the griefs of parisian cyclists.

[u/capekthebest]

Cycling in Paris is actually really affordable and most of the time, it's the fastest way to get around for me. I pay 3€/month for velib. Granted a lot of them are broken, but I usually find one that works after a couple of tries.

[u/thechaseofspade]

Paris vs. Macron has been quite the battle