Like you, I’ve read the stories about Paris and its urbanist transformation in recent years, and I’ve been inspired to see the photos of all of those cyclists flourishing on Paris’s new bike lanes. But one thing I had always wondered: How, in a dense, busy city like Paris, did they find a way to squeeze bike lanes into those streets? Here’s the answer.
Big thanks to Camille Hanuise of Paris en Selle for sharing her wisdom and experience, even on a day when it was rainy and windy.
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Reclaiming Space
3:25 Prioritizing Cycling
4:45 Bringing Back Humans
5:54 Sticking to the Plan
7:00 Adjusting for Growth
8:09 Beauty & Pleasure
9:12 Rethinking Old Ideas
10:53 The Biggest Impact
12:00 The Key to Paris’s Transformation IMHO
#cycling #bike #commuting
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Bonju today I am in the City of Lights Paris and I’m here on a mission to find how this famously car clogged traffic nightmare transformed into a cycling Haven faster than almost any City in history hey everyone I’m Tom and this is shifter a Channel about Urban cycling
Bike commuting and the ways we get around our cities and if you like this video please consider subscribing so Paris has been a Hot Topic among urbanists the last couple of years because under current May and E delgo the city has undergone a major transformation towards improving pedestrian and cycling spaces hundreds
Of kilometers of bike LS have been built iconic streets like this one have been turned over to pedestrians and cyclists and Automobiles removed we’re talking about a major transformation in one of the world’s great cities but this is my first time to Paris and I’m only here
For a couple of days so I need a tour guide so my name is Camy um I’m a cyclist I was born and raised in Paris I used to work for one of the local Association Cycling Association called p and I know work for a small friend at design um cycling infrastructure all
Over our friends oh I cycle everywhere so Camille is going to show me some of the ways that Paris is making this big change and how we can learn from its transformation let’s get Started okay we just got drenched with rain which is bad but there’s a rainbow so that’s good yeah uh but that’s not why we’re here why are we here what is this place this is La best Square and uh you have to imagine that a few
Years back two or 3 years ago this used to be a giant round about and now it’s a nice square with a a lot of space for pedestrians some new trees and a bike lane that goes around it and a bike lane all the way around so a few years ago
Standing here we would have got run over by a car uh yeah yeah pretty much and it used to be super dangerous I used to cycle here um before it was turned into that space um and it was really really complicated to cross um the the a square
When you were on a bike and dangerous I would imag super dangerous yeah car is coming from all of the directions right so one of the changes that’s happening in Paris this is an example of like just rearranging or reallocating the space I guess exactly yeah in favor of
Pedestrians and people living there not cars right and this is a pretty nice square and like a nice piece of a public space that people can use oh good well that’s a pretty impressive change and there’s a rainbow and there’s a rain well it’s almost gone down almost gone down we got [Applause]
It [Applause] Okay um this is an interesting street What’s Happening Here what are we seeing so we have a bike Lane right here next to us that didn’t used to be here it’s I think 3 or 4 years old and before that um this streets had really narrow sidewalks um more lanes for cars and
They removed some Lanes to make some space for the bike lane here and more space for pedestrians as well and since then number of people um cycling and the number of of pedestrians gone up and businesses are pretty much flourishing and thriving you mean without car parking the businesses didn’t all go
Bankrupt they didn’t no that’s uh that’s weird right weird it’s funny how this this seems to happen over and over again isn’t it in streets like this right so we’re seeing the same thing in Paris it’s the same in Paris yeah business business is thriving when you build bik LS all right what are we looking at here what’s this this is which used to be a long oneway road for cars from from where we were before to the very end of the the 12 and here in that part of the street it’s a pretty Narrow Street so it was
Impossible to build a b Lane so what they’ve done what the city has done is um rework the circulation plan so that cars can go through the whole neighborhood anymore so you can still drive there if you live there if you have deliveries to make but there is no
Through traffic anymore so that means that the number of cars has gone down drastically and that it’s way better for cyclists so as you can see that part has been transformed into bik Lane and cars that are exiting the the street are not forced to turn right oh I see so this is
Just the whole street is not like this no but it’s difficult for cars to go all the way through it exactly so it’s just sort of changed the way the street is used exactly yeah so there are um more cyclist now than cars in the streets and
Cars have other ways to go around yes exactly for instance that street over there uh which is much bigger and much wider and is designed to have more cars in It okay so this is the same V route that we were just on but this is an interesting spot here what’s happening here so while they build the V and Chang the circulation plan as they redid this small square this used to be around about so a fountain was already there
But cars went around it so if you were on foot there was no point in getting by the fountain because there was nowhere to sit and there were cars all around you and now they’ve changed it so it’s a a small square foot pedestrians theyve planted trees and Greenery everywhere
It’s much nicer than it was before shows you can do a lot with not a huge amount of space exactly yeah so it’s an interesting example of what you can do in a street that’s narrow not wide enough to implement bik Lane you can still do stuff for cyclist right and
What’s this green diamond oh it’s a signage that uh tells you that you’re entering a voru we call it the the Zelda Emerald cuz it’s green and looks like an emerald it looks like it’s from Nintendo Yeah so this is one of the newer bike lanes that been belt so it’s Avenue it’s an Avenue that goes straight into the center of the city uh from the Northeast and it’s been equipped with two bike Lanes on both sides um and it was I
Think opened last year and it’s it’s a great bike lane do you get the sense that the city is thoughtful about where it places bike Lanes or is it kind of halfhazard all over the place no there’s really um um they’re really trying to implement a network of bike Lanes on uh
All of the big major arteries of the city so it’s really designed in a way that makes it efficient and uh easy for people to get around on a bike the network is currently being built out uh are there still gaps in the system there are still gaps which you don’t get to
Sit today because we’re mainly riding on bik Lanes have a good tour guide and it’s easier here in the in the Eastern of the city because there are more bike Lanes implemented but in the west of Paris there are still a lot of Gas okay so now you just describe this bike line to me as the busiest one in the city yes boulev it’s five or six years old now and it’s super crowded yeah as we can see on the bike counter it gets a lot of traffic even today on a Sunday that’s
Cold and rainy so it’s only less than 5,000 today uh usually gets around 20,000 a day 20,000 a day yeah that’s significant so are we getting to the point in Paris where bike lines like have almost outgrown their size in use yes and this one I tend to avoid when
I’m on my own cuz it’s two packs oh really uh and not super comfortable cuz some parts like here are quite wide but some are narrower and with that number of cyclist on it it’s not wide enough so I guess we must be getting to the point
Where they need to think about widening it or adding some parallel roots or something like that probably adding a different Lane um on the other side of the street so that would make two lanes on both sides right cuz this is by directional yes yeah I see okay while
You know speaking for as a North American having a bike lane that’s too busy is a good problem to have it is quite a good problem to have yeah okay Great so we are now riding on banks of the S and this used to be a Motorway with two lanes very busy and noisy Lanes um pretty much a highway right in the middle of the city in the Heart of the City and this was converted into a
Pedestrian area that’s high welcome to use uh during the previous uh term of Mayor and delo it’s amazing it’s a breathe to be here it’s just such a repreve from the city get such good views as well so do you think when this was converted it was um politically
Significant did it Mark a turning point for the city it was very significant it’s it’s probably uh the one change that people remember from uh ano’s first term and uh it was announcing a lot of changes in the city as Well well this so this used to be a car tunnel tunnel for this used to be a car tunnel it’s a very direct way um from the center of Paris to the west of the city so it’s super efficient for cycl to Cy and there’s no cars at all there’s no
Cars at all I mean it’s not as nice is riding along the banks of the sand no but it’s nice when it’s raining it’s nice when it’s raining Yes so this is not the most Pleasant Street to ride your bike on but it’s an iconic location yes it’s the CH yes but uh even this has changed recently hasn’t it yes so we now have two bike Lanes on both sides of the sh and there are still
Six lanes for cars it’s little loud um and there are some fa tone on the ground so it gets a bit bumpy but it’s still a major change to compared to what was like before what it was like before because we had no bik Lanes at all
Before the only time you ride your bike on here is if you’re about to win the TR to friends yeah yeah this maybe is not the best bike lane in Paris but it’s an important one it’s very important important because the shant is actually um streets that connects the West to the
Center of Paris so for sists it is it’s the one way to go if they want to reach the center of the city right like you said earlier maybe emblematic emblematic of the changes that we’ve seen emblematic of the changes a very important part of the cycling Network as well Great okay wow we survived rain wind Paris traffic yes we did thank you for keeping me alive well you’re very welcome I hope you enjoyed the tour I did it’s such an eye-opening uh experience so thank you uh one final thought is like if you think more
Broadly about the changes the Paris has gone through the last couple of years what do you think is the biggest impact what’s the biggest change that you’ve seen Citywide what has all this done to the city honestly I think on a bigger scale it makes the city more
Livable and you know Paris is a very dense City sometimes you tend not to get enough space in your daily life and being able to cycle safely not everywhere yet but in most places is really something that brought me and I think other people moments of Liberty and autonomy and that’s really important
And you know sing in this environment it makes you happy CU it’s it’s difficult to get tired of that landscape yeah well that’s a beautiful notion to end on thank you very much for your time today thank you thank you for showing me wrong thank you Tom and my
Thoughts on the city after being here just a few days is I have a few one is that I’m pretty Amazed by the number of cyclists already I just stopped and watched rush hour this morning and was blown away some of these streets are getting 20,000 cyclists a day but the
Overall feeling I got from Paris right now is that it’s a city in transition there are some bike lanes that feel really safe and easy and complete but there are quite a few still that feel a little dangerous a little sketchy and sort of like a work in progress and I
Can’t help but think that’s just because the city is prioritizing speed over Perfection at this point it feels like the city is just putting in as much bike infrastructure identifying as many bike routes as possible as quickly as they can to get them done and then maybe
Later they’ll come back and sort of hone them and perfect them I think it’ll be so interesting to come back in a decade and see how things have been smoothed out over that time but more importantly maybe the overwhelming feeling that I got these over these last two days about
How Paris has made this transition comes down to one word that kept kept popping up in my mind and that is space and this may sound obvious but bear with me here it feels like so many other cities try to engineer their way to bike friendliness they like try to find like
The perfect place where they a bike lane can go that won’t disrupt traffic or won’t disrupt parking car parking they spend so much time twisting themselves into knots trying to find that perfect location and it feels to me that peris said like f all that we want to give
Cyclist space let’s give them space and the most obvious example to me is the street behind me this is Rivoli this is one of paris’s great shopping High streets and when the city decided to put bike Lanes on here they like put bike Lanes they went all out used to be four
Lanes of car traffic now three of those lanes are given to bikes and one is left for buses and taxis and and trucks delivering Goods so almost the whole street has been G given over to cyclists it’s a huge amount of space and even Camille was like it seems like a lot of
Space maybe even over time it’ll be honed to give back some of that space to pedestrian I mean this is a dense Old City with tons of narrow streets so to see the city take a street like this and give so much of that space over to
Cyclist seemed like it was sending a message it was like cyclists matter and we’re going to find space for them and it’s such a different approach from what we see in North America and all that and that argument that North American cities can’t find Space on roads just seems
Absurd when you see what’s happening here where space is at such a premium so that’s my quick impression of cycling in Paris I’ve been very inspired by what I’ve seen here I’m leaving with lots of new ideas and I hope you got something from this video as well thanks for
Watching I’ll see you next time
34 Comments
Lovely. Paris is a model for everyone in North America, and you so adeptly pointed to how they did it: f– perfection, just do it!
Not lying. I'm Dutch and cycle a whole lot. Two years ago I cycled in Paris for 3 days and got hit by a white caddy while I was on a cycle lane in my right. My bike broke down and the car driver couldn't speak English. We was sorry tho
French person living in the US here: While I haven't been in Paris in a while to see this biking revolution, Paris used to be known for its aweful traffic, huge roundabouts and very difficult to navigate as a driver, let alone a cyclist. A big part of that is just the amount of people in all transport mode. I remember thinking once how beautiful the city was but how spoiled the experience was by the smell and sound of all the cars. I avoid Paris and prefer smaller french cities (Lille, Nantes, even Marseille since they redid the vieux port) because of that, but seeing the space they are reclaiming for green space and walking and cycling is refreshing!
I think one key difference with North American cities and why it is so hard to imagine the same happening here is that Paris was already very walkable/public trasitable, so you can imagine what more of that looks like. Take a city like Indianapolis and no one is walking anywhere so getting people to imagine that someone may want to walk/bike somewhere is a bigger issue than space. On the opposite, Washington DC is doing much better and possibly because walking was already more a part of the experience?
"How to find space for bike lanes in clogged cities" Thank youuuuuu, many streets here in El Salvador are just narrow enough for 2 car lanes (the others have 4 lanes though 😅)
This is really enheartening.
Picking a random frame… 11 cars/vans, 29 cyclists. The cars were still taking up more space.
París is leaving cities like London and New York behind.
There seems to be a real desire to give bicycle users the freedom they deserve.
Bon chance Paris.❤
Coming to Paris in the beginning of June, as we plan to do the avenue Verte from London to Paris.
What was the source of the map you were showing in between? Would be cool to see a city seeing route, allowing to discover Paris by bike using the new cycle paths…
A new Amsterdam in the making!
Considered subscribing! ❤️🚲
Cycling is definitely freedom!
Thank you so much for visiting Paris after their huge traffic changes! I'm totally impressed by how much they did for the pedestrians and cyclists.
France need to color their bike lanes.
I have lived in Tokyo for many years, and commute daily by bicycle. Tokyo is a large and densely populated city, it has narrow roads, heavy traffic, and almost no cycling-specific infrastructure. Yet, Tokyo is a remarkably safe city for cycling, seeing some 2 million daily cycling commutes.
Japan has always taken a different approach to safety than the West. Japan's approach has always been people-based, whereas the West's approach has been thing-based. Japan has long understood that things are seldom dangerous of themselves, and only become dangerous when operated carelessly or dangerously. Japan understands something that the West can't wrap its mind around, that it is impossible to build a safe car, or train, or anything else if the person who operates it is careless or dangerous. This being the case, Japan more carefully regulates the actions of drivers and operators than the cars and machines they operate.
I remember getting my drivers license in Japan, it was a difficult and time-consuming operation. I had to spend weeks in driving school, more time behind the wheel with an instructor, and even had to get a first aid and CPR certification. In addition to that was the nearly $3000 cost. During driving school, safety was the thing most frequently stressed, particularly when driving around pedestrians and cyclists. There was even a video skit in the driver training showing a car hitting a bicycle, what the driver had to do after the collision, and the list of consequences for hitting the bicycle, which are considerable.
What are the consequences of hitting a cyclist in Japan? First, in a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist, the motor vehicle operator is considered automatically at fault, regardless of the actions of a pedestrian or cyclist. A driver is required to "expect the unexpected." In Japan there is no such thing as an "accident," all collisions are considered acts of negligence. Any collision which results in an injury is considered a crime, any collision which results in the fatality of a pedestrian or cyclist will result in the immediate arrest of the driver, and a mandatory jail sentence. A DUI fatality collision carries a 15 year minimum sentence, if there are 2 or more victims, it becomes a capital offense with possible capital punishment.
Tokyo will not close off roads to motor vehicles for the benefit of cyclists because the roads are funded by the taxes and fees levied on drivers and motor vehicles. Japan has this funny idea that if you pay the government for infrastructure or service, the government is required to provide that infrastructure or service, come hell or high water. This was apparent during the pandemic when government offices were required to remain open as usual even when non-government workers were encouraged to stay home. Tokyo's commerce depends on the unrestricted movement of all kinds of vehicles, as commerce is the source of the government's revenue, not to mention the source of the people's income.
I do think that Japan's approach is probably the best of all options, the roads are safe for cyclists and for drivers, the traffic fatality rates are low, and everyone can get to where they need to go.
At 08:48, this boat is specifically for the Finance Minister's executive members (at Bercy).
Don't think that the Seine is a place to transport people. Only tourist boats and some happy few can navigate on the river.
How do the rest of us get a Hidalgo? What made this possible? Paris is doing better than Cambridge these days.
Modal filtering for the win.
I keep wondering if 10 years from now the bike lanes will need to be removed so that the bikes along with all the other micromobilty can use the entire road, because car are fully banned. Knowing it will take 10 or more years to add those separated bike lanes, we should be considering carefully when we will retire cars in cities and not mistakenly build it wrong for the future. Modal filtering is a much easier measure to direct car traffic to arterials while we still allow cars. Dutch design eventually benefitted most by changing car traffic instead of slowly propping up separated bike lanes.
Very cool to see, thanks for the great video!
Wait, are you now saying widen the (bike) road, (just one more lane) hahaha. At least bikes take less space than cars.
Everything presented here feels like a breath of fresh air to me. These changes make me hopeful that Paris will be a trendsetter for reclaiming our cities.
How awesome. I was in Paris in 2013 and absolutely hated it. It was loud and overrun by cars. Thanks for sharing this. I can’t wait to redo!
The conclusion really hit the spot about cycling in Paris, the new network is amazing and safe…and suddenly stop and you're on your own until the next secure cycling road…work in progress but starting to work
Really great video, thanks for showcasing this
That bike tunnel looks like a great place to put a few small shopping stalls. Maybe a quick bike service spot, a drinks stall, and a couple of others like that. Looks like there's enough space and it'd make it feel little less eerie.
After many years there, I left Paris in mid 2018, before this really started. I am pretty "no fear" in terms of cycling but for large sections of the city it was genuinely stressful, even on Sundays. TBH, on other days it was adrenaline rush stuff, even going a few blocks, and I usually just rode shank's pony. I am positively itching to get back and test it out!
The Adjusting for Growth section of this video is very interesting. I can't help but think that maybe the cycle traffic would be reduced with… uh… just one more lane, bro
That's what they did in the Netherlands, implement and upgrade gradually
😊
I love how you put the before and after footage.
Nice summary of all the changes in Paris. Hidalgo has done some great work. But next time you are here come out to Versailles You can ride your bike all the way from the center of Paris to the Versailles Castle and all of the trip will be via bike paths. It's a lovely ride that will take you through communities like Chaville and Viroflay where you can stop and eat or visit shops, parks.
If you like being off the beaten track and have a trail bike you can go from the Pont de Sevres (Paris) to Versailles via bike trails through the forest. Just beautiful!
Then after you arrive in Versailles and view the castle (if that is your thing), take a tour around the Versailles Castle park by bike (there are bikes for rent) – you can cycle around the canals and to go further into the deepest parts of the park to see the working farms and the sheep and horse herds.
Very good. Thanks for sharing this
Did you get to Madrid? Their river area has loads of good cycling. Major streets need to work on it. I just walked my bike rather than attempt riding with cars, buses, scooters, ebijes, mopeds, taxis zipping across the designated bike lane, which is the 2nd lane from the sidewalk. The first lane is for buses taxis etc to stop so they’re always cutting across the 2nd lane. Hair-raising.
Chances are the vast majority of viewers here are cyclists. I am one myself. But in reality, changes only endure the test of time if they are perceived as satisfactory for the majority of the population, and that includes drivers who may not even walk or cycle. I am really curious about what do they think of those changes. Those are the ones who can make or break the future of this whole infrastructure.
I really hope that my city, Bucharest, that was known as "Little Paris" in the past, now a city of cars, very hostile towards cycling, will soon become soon like. It's all in the citizens power (will).