Why Paris Tore Down A Highway To Build A Tram

Paris is going all in on its urban revolution. Over the last decade, it’s added hundreds of miles of bike lanes, expanded its bus lanes, replaced parking with trees, pedestrianized its streets, and, to top it all off, tore down a useless highway to make way for an expansion of the T1 Tramway.

Since the 1980s France has been building tramway systems in cities big and small. 28 cities in France now have tram networks and Paris has begun work on further expanding its 14-line tram network, including adding dozens of kilometers of tracks to its inaugural line: the T1.

But, there’s something special about this specific expansion: it includes replacing an unfinished highway with a much friendlier tram boulevard.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15hB6ywGG3HyAH4RG89sXfYa-Wf0FilryChLepZNnbPY/edit#gid=2022833749

Chapters:
00:00 – 00:44 Boogeyman
00:45 – 01:21 Tearing Down A Highway
01:22 – 01:50 Tramway Renaissance
01:51 – 03:27 Paris Transport System
03:28 – 04:21 Extending the Tramway
04:22 – 05:14 Pasadena SR 710
05:15 – 05:49 Outro

#tramway #paris #urbanism #transit #urbanplanning #ecology

or advocacy online, whether it’s on YouTube, Twitter or wherever, then you’ve probably come across the number one boogeyman for urbanists. Okay, actually, it’s not that boogeyman. The one I’m talking about is highways. Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of information and knowledge shared about highways that are construction and their impact on the urban fabric of neighborhoods and cities. A lot of this information has focused on how highway building in the postwar U.S. really f***** up cities and was tied to extremely racist policies. So whenever I see a project to tear down a highway, I get hyped. This is the A186 just outside of Paris. Well, actually, it’s what used to be the A186. This image shows the highway and what it used to look like back in 2011. This is what it looks like now. The A186 The A186 was an unfinished highway connection that was supposed to extend to the A86 a few kilometers east. But that never materialized. What was left was a bit of a stub or spur. In early 2019, the last cars rolled through this highway before it was closed for good. In May of that same year. By October, demolition crews were tearing up the old highway to make room for an extension of the T1 tramway. To understand what the future vision is with this new tram and what the old highway will look like in the years to come, we need to go back in time to the 80s and 90s. In the 1980s, France began a new era in its transportation policies. For the first time in decades, serious studies were being conducted about building tramways. The first trams would be built as part of this renaissance would be the T1 in the northern inner suburbs of Paris, Not too far away from where the A186 was cutting the city of Montreuil in two. This tram was the first to try and answer two difficult questions one. How do we move people laterally and two how do we do this cost effectively? These are the borders of the city of Paris. When most people think of Paris, this is what they’re referring to. Around 2.2 million people live within the city limits. But most people that live in the broader Paris region live here in the inner suburbs. This area is home to 4.5 million people and a bunch of different cities. Now, the Parisian metro system does a great job at interconnecting the city proper, but it serves the inner suburbs. This leaves this zone more reliant on cars. Check out this graph. Folks that live in the inner suburbs choose cars as their form of transit, much more than those that live within the city proper. One of the reasons why is because traveling between suburbs has become more prevalent, as compared to traveling from the suburbs into the city. This is where the Paris Region Tramways have stepped in over the last 30 years. They’ve grown to 14 lines, 12 of which are totally outside the city proper. This includes the T1 tramway in the northern suburbs, along with other tram lines that are actually in the outer suburbs. Thanks to this decades long investment, millions of riders now use these lines on a daily basis. This is the vibe that various local and regional authorities decided on over the last decade, so that the T1 could be extended from its current terminus at vastly Le Cirque all the way to Vodaphone to name the new tramway route through this old highway will look something like this. A lot of highway plans A lot of highway plans from the 50s and 60s were these grandiose designs that tried to place a web of roads over an existing city. However, in some places highway constructions began only to shortly stop. Because of a lack of funds or local opposition. Leaving some areas with an A186-style stub or spur. There’s tons of these stubs in cities all over Europe and the US. A lot of places are now looking at these stubs as opportunities for redevelopment, just like Paris did with the A186. Here’s just one example. In Pasadena, right next to the city center is State Road 710. Now, if you look at it from above, you can kind of tell that there’s something missing. You’ve got this big junction of the 210 and the Ventura Freeway, and then when the 710 starts, it immediately stops, leading to a big empty plot. Now, this was never supposed to just be a stub. It was going to extend all the way to Long Beach. Is Interstate 710. Of course, this would have wiped out tons of housing and people, but luckily for the folks in Pasadena and South Pasadena, that never happened. Even until recently. The state was trying to finish this gap through billions of dollars of tunnels. Now the city is back in control of the stub, and there’s a chance to turn this into something useful, like housing. Paris has been in the news lately thanks to their push for people centered urban planning policies. It goes without saying, but I think this transformation of the A1 eight six into a tramway is inspiring, and more places should follow this example. If you liked this video, consider subscribing to the channel. As always, with any complex topic. There’s a chance that some of the information presented is not as accurate as possible. If you have any input, drop it in the comments. I’ve included a list of sources in the description.