It's crazy that such an iconic square like place de la Bastille ever got turned into a roundabout in the first place. Literally the place to be (or not, if you're a monarch i guess) in late 18th century France, and they stripped it of so much of its history just people could drive around in circles on it.
Everywhere was a parking lot back in the 60s in Paris. You can find funny pictures on google with cars parked in front of Notre Dame or the Louvre, as well as the beautiful Place Vendome. I'm happy that we changed this
Couldn't help but notice in the "Prioritizing Cycling" section the change from (loud) traffic to quiet bike street, back to (loud) traffic again as you got to the other end. Kind of says it all.
@@irgendwer3610 And even that, you have to be really loud about it to beat cars! Arguably it also gives more of a joyful and cultural experience I'd say - like the musicians in the Paris metro and parks!
@@Shifter_Cycling Actually, Colorado Springs has had, and kept expanding, an off street multiuse pathway network, typically wide, concrete and grade separated. But more recently created on street painted bike lanes (which nearly all drivers seem to ignore). Wrong direction.
To be honest, I do prefer a seperator with paint and it works much better, if drivers would respect it. It gives more space to bicycles (because you can drive on the paint) and you can switch on the road (of course signaling and turning over when the traffic allows it) than being stuck in a slow bicycle lane.
Being someone who cycled both in Paris and Oslo (Foodora) I promise you cycling in Oslo is way better. The problem with Paris is that they scrammed some segregated cycle lanes left or right of busy car lanes yet it seems like the purpose is more to have the cyclists out of the way of the cars instead of creating a nice and quick cycle transportation system. Cycling in Oslo is way safer and quicker since they put more focus on reducing and slowing down car traffic and doing such remove the need of segregated bicycle lanes to increase security.
I have witnessed these changes first-hand, and they are quite amazing! 15 years ago, I lived in the south of Paris and went to school in the north, and mostly used the métro (subway, underground), and occasionally a Vélib. While it was nice to ride through Paris, one needed to be rather thick-skinned to do it. Now cycling has become much easier and less stressful, and many, many more people cycle through Paris. Oh, Parisian cyclists are no better drivers than Parisian motorists, mind you, but it's good to see my hometown evolve in such a way and so quickly!
Same here in Milan, bikers are not better than motorists when it comes to rules. Obviously the opposite 'factions' that is just the other to blame for bad behaviours. A car not behaving according to traffic law is way more dangerous than a bike, though.
I entered Paris via Saint-Lazare and loved the new bike lane to Madeleine. In the stretch from Printemps towards Madeleine I once had three oncoming cars in the bike lane, one insisted they had to go through there. Really needs a bollard, if cars aren't stopped physically, they will do what they want. At least in Paris.
Agreed. Space. If you are a city planner and you have no idea what to do just take a street and rebuild it 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 for cars, bikes and pedestrians. Even if you close a street completely to through traffic the worst case scenario is that we have to move over one block and drive on a different street instead.
@@Shifter_Cyclingthe challenge in NA is rarely insufficient space but rather priorities for the space. I’m in favor of arterials being 4 lanes wide (so traffic can pass and keep going) with roundabouts every 1/4 mile or 400m (about every other block (through traffic would make an easy u-turn while traffic flows slowly but steadily. I’m a bicyclist who thinks a well designed roundabout can be safe for bicyclists, albeit maybe on 2x2-lane configurations (not as much on 4x4-lane).
@@ttopero Only with segregated cycle lanes, and bike priority at every exit/entrance a la the Netherlands. Multi-lane roundabouts are a nightmare for cyclists otherwise. Cars go too fast and "don't see" cyclists as they enter and exit.
I was participating on one of my city's neighbourhood meeting about their plan to put a protected bike lane on a specific stretch of street and one thing the planners mentioned was that they needed to keep the flow of traffic so were against making the street a one way - currently it is a narrow two way + two lanes for parking. That really opened my eyes to all the dependencies of changing even just one smaller street, though this example in Paris makes me think they could be more ambitious with that street (it connects to a few other large ones that could certainly take that extra traffic!)
To add some more additional notes: - The amelioration of the bike lanes was a stated goal a year ago (or two?) from the city government. It was an acknowledgement that paths were getting ugly and it was time to set them in stone (quite literally, changing cones and barriers to properly laid concrete). There was recent news about a referendum to make heavy cars pay more parking, but the 10th arrondissement also had a local referendum attached to fix the bike lane on Magenta, which is very narrow and runs with pedestrians. Current plans are to put the lane into the parking space. I assume it will be discussed further. People hate that lane, me included. - The western part of the city is indeed far behind in cycling infrastructure. This is notoriously the richer, older, more conservative part of the city. The gap there is less related to a lack of care but more a heavier opposition by the local leadership. Hidalgo's policies have not been spared from large backlashes of nimbyism and car-brained vitriol. It's worth looking into how the city continues to transform despite that, since a lot of places (especially in NA) tend to capitulate easily to those voices. - A bit of credit to the previous mayor, Delanoë, who began to add more cycling lanes and (temporary) car-free streets. Most importantly, he was in charge for the launch of the bike share system Velib which has a lot of users. Most of the city's transformation has been in Hidalgo's two terms but Delanoë definitely broke the soil a bit. - Interesting point at the end at how there might need more pedestrian space (see again the Magenta lane issue). There was also a comment by Camille about adding another lane. Sometimes it can be a pain navigating the mass of cyclists that don't always respect the street. There's a lack of bike parking in the city and it results in a lot of theft from increasingly resourceful thieves. Kind of shows that even with bikes being far superior to cars they are still personal vehicles and carry on a smaller scale similar demands to car drivers. Would have been cool to see you around, shame it was only a few days. There's a lot to see with the city, but glad you got a video in that time! Edit: one more - A city is more than its mayor, currently David Belliard is the deputy in charge of transports since 2020 and is the one really doing the political ground game like going to the community meetings (in comparison, I've never even seen Hidalgo with my own eyes). Christophe Najdovski was his predecessor who was in that position longer. I believe he was on the War on Cars podcast if you want to hear a bit from him directly.
Yes it's a bit like London. Cycling got a massive boost when Boris was mayor, so much that the hire bikes became 'Boris' bikes. But the previous mayor set up the hire scheme, just before he left office. Under Boris we got some fantastic bike lanes, but I have to agree that Paris has been a lot bolder. They haven't been afraid just to put down the sort concrete blocks (you normally see on roadworks) to create physical separation. I think our traffic engineers would have kittens if anyone suggested this! Sadly the current mayor of London isn't interested in cycling - he'd prefer everyone to travel by bus!
The 'not capitulating' part is critical. Cambridge just (2023) tried to have a radical Sustainable Transport Zone with a weekday daytime road-charge for motor vehicles moving in, or entering, the city, to make 50 million/yr to pay for a decent bus network and more cycling walking/wheeling infrastructure, but it was shouted down by pro-car/pro-congestion/anti-payment people, and the political will collapsed. Now probably nothing major will happen for a decade and Cambridge remains hopelessly full of congestion with a terrible public transport system and no chance of meeting its emissions reduction requirements. The better transport had 70% support, but the 'paying for it' only had 30% support. If central government was prepared to pay for something like this then maybe it could have been done.
Ottawa, Canada keeps using every excuse to not under a similar transformation for the better. The visionary mayors of Paris and Montreal have made so many improvements and aren't done yet. Decommissioning two-traffic on many Ottawa roads could provide incredible space for more active living and safe bicycle travel.
I went to Paris last summer and rode bikes around the city with my family and it was wonderful! I fell in love with the city. We need to follow their example in the states
Bonjour from France! Glad you visited us, and I hope you enjoyed your trip 😊. Next time you're in Paris, you should meet AltisPlay. Both of you create fantastic content for commuters/shifters. He has also welcomed NotJustBikes and CNN journalists to discuss Paris's transformations in favor of biking! See you in your next video !
Something that is just absolutely amazing to me where you can just notice a huge difference is when you listen at 4:10 - 4:45. For the first 10 seconds, they are walking and no cars are passing. It's super quiet and calm. Then for about 20 seconds there is a huge amount of noise just from a FEW cars passing by. Then when they have passed you can hear it becomes quiet again. Cars just make sooooo much noise, and it's really annoying. It's such a relief when non-car areas are built.
I notice this every day on my commute to work, I start in a forest, which is very silent because there are no cars there, and the moment I get back on the road it's like a wall of sound hits me all of a sudden
As a Londoner, I'm quite jealous of the transformation Paris is going to. Don't get me wrong, London is also going through its own cycling transformation but the scale and speed Paris has been working at is incredible.
I’ve been to paris many times and always preferred walking over driving and transit, even for longer distances. All the incredible architecture and scenery make a 1.5h walk fly by. I’m very happy to see the city making efforts to improve walking and cycling infrastructure and reducing space for cars. The fact that they did it so quickly is amazing!Can’t wait to go back and see all the changes! Montreal is also undergoing a similar transformation. Very excited to see what my city will look like in a few years!
I recently went to Paris, France. I found that neighborhoods vary on bike lane availability as well. Typically, old school mayors (several mayors in France) will be against bikes compared to more cars. For those that realize benefits of bike, they welcome it more.
This tends to happen in many cities with multiple jurisdictions. It’s a difficult one to manage, but we tend to see that, over time, bike lanes prove themselves and the opposition softens. Well, most of the time 😑
This brings me to tears, just love when a city invests time, energy, and thought on improving life for cyclists and by extension for everyone. Wish London woke up from its sleep and saw how cars are damaging the city, the environment, the neighborhoods and the health of its people.
Nice overview of the infrastructure, it's crazy to recall all these changes! Still missing the intersections to be arranged and the western neighborhoods which are still a nightmare. Perhaps I'll cross your paths in Paris!
I enjoyed cycling in Paris so much on a trip, it convinced me to cycle in NYC where I live. It just seemed crazy to go back to other forms of transport after a week of cycling and realizing how much happier, healthier, and more productive I was. NYC isn't where Paris is at, but I hope with more cyclists like me it changes.
I've been going to Paris at least once per year for the last seven years, and the transformation has been brilliant. Every time I go, it gets better! I'm going back there in two days and can't wait! For a guy from Los Angeles, even the bad bike lanes there are good mdr (French for lol, haha).
You are so right about the speed with which Paris approached tranfsorming the streets! How they've done it - just build *something* quickly to so have a solid city-wide foundation that is connected throughout - is so important! In my German city we can't even have a painted bike line without years of planning. When they build something proper it is only for a few 100m, then there's nothing again. This change is not accepted by the residents, neither motorists nor cyclists. Resulting in even slower change.
Great video! And well done Paris! One thing that I appreciate here in the Netherlands is the red colour coding of the cycle paths. This makes it clearer where you can safely cycle and for drivers and pedestrians where to expect cyclists. I'm excited to see the progress in the coming years!
yes, AltisPlay, a youtuber who is all about analyzing bike infrastructure is steadily asking about some colour, and not just paint that makes it slippery and doesn't last. Sometimes it's really hard to see where you are supposed to go next
Thanks for the visit, I used to go to Paris every year when I was a kid, my dad would drive for hours and towards the end of the trip when he was tired from driving so much we would arrive at this incredible rond point de la bastille it was an extremely stressful experience for everybody. It seems very peaceful now I'd love to visit again
Excellent. Paris has so many narrow streets it is amazing to see so many recouped for the residents and cyclists. 20,000+ per day on that one route; WOW!
The businesses never suffer for fewer cars. Someone told me our one way main street should be re-opened to 2-way traffic to help business. So by making the pavements narrower and creating more noise and danger, businesses will do better> Funny thing is our neighbouring town pedestrianized their main shopping street, and it is way busier than ours. What do people not get? I'd replace the one way car lane with a two-way bike lane and use the on-street parking to expand pedestrian space, put in more seats, bins, some secure bicycle lockers and leave the small part near the train station open to buses only! There are 2 alternative streets to drive on!
Great video Tom! Kudos to Paris for just putting bike lanes in and allowing people to ride where they can. I'd love to see my city of Brisbane (AUS) take this idea and just do it!
@Shifter_Cycling would have mentioned the 2021 speed reduction. Paris default speed limit was brought down to 30km/h (from 50km/h). Which made cohabitation in street without bike lane way safer. Addtionnaly a by product is that since 2008 in the regulation one way street limited to 30km/h had to allow circulation in both way for cycles. This suddenly made a lots of streets accessible to bikes and make circulation so much easier on bike since you are not limited by one-way streets.
Not really. This can be overturned by the local administration, and it was in Paris. You can go both ways, by bike, in 30km/h one-way streets only where it's explicitly allowed. Hopefully it's the case in most of those streets. Last regulation nitpick: when you cycle in one-way streets, in the other direction, you don't have any right to pass. You must yield even to vehicles coming from your left. A lot of cyclists don't know that.
@x My understanding is that as you mention it's applicable only if correct signalization is present. As for "overtunring" it needs to be done street by street with justification and not globally. In practice, it's available in most one way streets I encounter and getting better (city mention 2/3 already in center with a target of 100% by 2026 for small streets). Edit: For the right to pass I wondered and could not find something clear enough. Found some source that mention if the obstacle is in the cycle path then he needs to give way. But outside of it the general rule is that the heavier vehicle need to give way to the lighter one. Additionally, the car has to apply the 1m rule when passing a cyclist so without obstruction in either way if the space is not enough I would conclude that the car is forced to stop if it cannot maintain correct separation (while the cyclist do not have to maintain this distance).
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.
Precisely today I was telling a Parisienne that I wished we could import Anne Hidalgo to Lisbon and send the current mayor away with a kick in the butt... This woman who uses her bike in Paris was complaining about the lack of proper public transportation but she also admitted that the result of allowing too many cars in the city was very obvious in Lisbon’s streets. What an amazing work she's been doing and thanks for the video!
This is fantastic information to spread. In a community in Southern California they could really benefit from bike paths for cyclists so they don't knock down the pedestrians walking on sidewalks. Perhaps this transition can be adopted across the board too! Merci beaucoup.❤
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.
i know ill sound like a arrogant dutch person.... But welcome to the club. Its good to see more and more places where they rebalance the space for transport methods people want to use. I am a big fan of our dutch bicycle paths mostly because i use them daily but also they can be used (with some other places i am sure) as an examples to others. It's a pity that lessons like 'shops will hate it' have to be relearned so often but i guess thats human nature. Great to see Paris moving forward at a speed most would not have figured possible. Greetings from Utrecht / Netherlands.
Great video, thanks. When I travel I head for Paris. Two channels you have probably found which show lots of developing cycling infrastructure: Paris Cycling & Transit Stuff, and FranceWheeler.
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
I must complement Paris for the political commitment it took to fast track their bike lane development. I was in Paris 20 years ago when traffic was gridlocked and parking was impossible. Like to learn the experience of the city official and citizen during this transformation. Bravo Paris. I have to visit you again, now as a cyclist!
Great video Tom. I was there almost a year ago and went to many of the locations you just visited. There was evidence of profound change even in that short space of time.
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.
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?
There are some really drastic changes, I am beyond impressed with the leadership to enact real change so quickly. Paris is such a compact walkable city, going by bike would be such a joy, and i can't wait to visit again someday soon. Thanks for the outstanding video, it good to have inspiration for what we can do with the pollical will and support of a city's people.
@@raph151515 No it's much less dangerous now, the number of cyclists has skyrocketed but accidentology only very slightly increased. (In layman's terms : the number of cyclists increased a LOT nore than the number of accidents, meaning that the risk of accident cyclist has lowered, also the severity of accidents has lowered). It's only slower for cars, it's faster for bikes and all soft mobility devices. You really think it's always been a joy to ride a bike in Paris? It was awful between 1955 and early 2000's, all the space was for cars. Now they have less space and bikes have a lot more.
@@KyrilPGno it's half as fast as before, but I'm talking about people that can pedal of course, if you're talking about the ones plugging the lanes at very low speed while checking their tiktok that never learned to use a bicycle, yes for them it's 10% faster, so 10% of the whole road users got a boost, well done, but 90% had their speed cut in half. Before there was room, now there is room for no one, they made the whole city one way single lane, what a progress ! even if there is only half the number of cars, the amount of traffic is still doubled because the average trip takes 4 times what it used to take. Having cars sitting so much has raised the pollution levels, which makes doing exercise more dangerous for your health. This blend of politics is about virtue signaling, not actual results. Yes having everybody crawl makes less accident, why not stopping all travel, it will save lives ! or why not going backward, after all, most of the accident happens when we travel forward.
@@raph151515 I live there, in the 19th. It's MUCH faster for cyclists. Except of course if you refer to the cycling traffic jam of Sebastopol boulevard at rush hour. And even then, a bike jam is still way more fluid than a car jam. There wasn't more space before, cyclists were stuck between a bus and the curb in the best case scenario. Or were out in the wild with cars in most other cases. The streets haven't been widened nor narrowed, space was taken from cars and given to cyclists and pedestrians. Only cars slowed down. And no, there isn't more pollution, stop watching CNEWS it rots the brain. The level of micro particules has lowered, because less cars can pass in the same street, even if the street seems just as occupied. The faster a car goes, the more it emits particules. Between 10 cars moving very slowly and 20 moving faster, it's the fewer number at lower speeds that emit the least particules. Virtue signaling is talking a lot and not doing anything transformational. What was done transformed a lot. Now half my building rides a bike, my plumber rides a cargo e-bike and dumped his van... It changed a lot of things for the better.
@@raph151515 After having checked your other messages : seems like you were a "guerrilla cyclist", also known as an organ donor in the medical field. I was too when there were no bike lanes, taking the Étoile circle head-on, putting my foot on car's front hoods, hitting them with my hand to scare them shltless... It was a fight, a quite exhilarating, yet dangerous, fight. But how many of us could actually do that? A very small minority. Most people were frightened by the traffic and lack of cycling amenities. The average people just wanted a much more secured path to cycle, and the lanes allowed that. Today, it's much faster and easier for the normal cyclist. And just as before for the guerrilla one, or even better. There are also M12 signs almost everywhere now, which allow us to pass red lights legally, which was not the case before. So I really doubt that you were able to go faster before while staying within the boundaries of the law. 30 years ago the red lights were already timed for an average speed of 20 or 25km/h (since the 90's), so if you went faster, you were most certainly illegally passing red lights. Now you can go faster and pass plenty of red lights perfectly legally, thanks to the M12 signs. You're just complaining about not being the (almost) only cyclist in the street anymore. Which is a pretty selfish and elitist point of view. You're no longer the exception, me neither, get on with it.
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!
"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 😅)
I'm American living for years now in Lyon, France. You should visit this city one day, the changes are happening fast! They recently had to expand the main bike route because there were too many bikes during rush hour haha it deserves a visit :)
Lyon already was improving bicycle infrastructure 15 years ago. They were ahead of Paris. It’s a pity that all attention now goes to Paris, while Lille, Lyon, Nantes and probably other French cities were doing this before.
Great video! I live in El Paso and they have done very little making our streets safe for bicycles. It's good to know there are places that are devoting their resources to this endeavor.
Lovely video, as always. You make an excellent point around 13:00 about trying to engineer your way out of it. In Switzerland, the land of diplomacy and compromise, there's excellent car AND public transport infrastructure, but in the very old cities, this approach of trying to do everything is hitting a limit, mostly of space. You have to prioritize, and unfortunately, it's become a significant source of conflict. In Switzerland, nobody would dare a bold experiment the way Paris is and just build something. If it can't be done in a way that satisfies everybody, often you don't do anything at all. Things are moving, but there's a long way to go.
If all goes well, I'll be back in Paris in November. Last time I was there was in 2019, and the changes since then look amazing. I'm not even much of a cyclist, but Paris felt like it had the bones to be a wonderful walking city if it wasn't for the absolutely insane amount of cars. I'm very excited to see it again.
It is so interesting to view the contrast of the cities you visit in Canada and the EU vs the US. We here in the US are so adverse to cyclists. Now with e-bikes becoming more popular states want to keep them off of bike paths while at the same time limit their speed committing them to faster overtaking traffic. Key Biscayne Florida has actually outlawed e-bikes from their city. States are using every conceivable excuse there is to regulate, license and tax. You would think a progressive state like California would welcome clean energy e-bike commutes thus eliminating ICE urban concentrations but instead the state is putting up roadblocks to tax, inspect and license.
Man, I am jealous of all that bike infrastructure. The city I am from used to be known for it's biking community a few generations ago, but there's not a single bike lane to be found. I haven't been hit by a car yet though, so I guess some of it remains.
Great video, Tom. Paris has made amazing advances under Ann Hidalgo but has far to go. A lot of their new "infrastructure" is paint but those lanes that were just claimed for bikes under the guise of being temporary like Janet Khan's use in NYC soon became accepted and made permanent. This is the way forward. Once the change in use of the lanes has be come accepted they can be made physically separate and AAA safe.
Hypothesis; uphill cycling lanes are more importantant than downhill ones. (edit: because drivers get frustrated with slow bikes blocking them, which is less likley on a decline, due to speed) (As a Scot, the cities I have lived in are not flat, so uphill bikes are very slow) Anyone any thoughts? If space is an issue, prioritisation may be important.
In 1987, I cycled through the alps and ended up taking the TGV (still Orange and new !) frm St-Rahaël to Paris, but my bike had t travel on overnight train and I would only get it next day. So I walked from gate de Lyon to the St-Germain neighbourhood on west bank and saw the traffic. Next morning, I walked back (or took métro) to Gare de Lyon to get bike and there was NO WAY I would bike in that crazy traffic. Not even close. And I had biked though cities before without fear. So it is amazing what happened to Paris since Annie Hidalgo took over to make cycling in the city possible. (Of you look at first Bourne movie, you will see him race on the road along la Seine which has since been closed). COVID was a huge boost because during height of it, it was a lot easier to reduce car capacity since people weren't driving t work but needed exercise so politicaly easier, and once this proved to be a success, it became muchy easier to leave them in and then forge forwrad with the "it works" ammunition in hand. The French TV programme Parigo covered this quite a bit in recent years. (alas not on UA-cam anymore due to rights issues).
what bs, I was born there, I never was afraid of riding a bike in traffic. I could cross half of the city in 10 min (going downhill) Now I would never ride a bicycle there, it's not practical and the benefits (speed) have been destroyed. The only big issue for us real die hard bike users in paris are bike thieves which are even more numerous now thanks to the government so you must own a shitty bike with 4 pounds heavy chains. People comment here like they know shit, you were not in Paris biking every day in the past 30 years to understand and judge what Delanoe and Hidalgo did, what they did is very expensive for everybody there but the results are not there. The only sure thing is that nobody can travel nicely now. More than half of the people I know from Paris left the region, good job Hidalgo.
Good to see Paris inserting some Dutch sanity in that chaotic city. Loved my visits in the past but STRESSful for a Southern paysanne de Pays-bas. Camille get an upright bike, your back will thank you and the improved vieuw is much safer.
Tier, dott, lime, velib and veligo (subsidized ebikes) also add an easy way to use bikes you can use one way. As a Canadian in Paris I really appreciated them for 1 way trips.
Edmonton has changed a lot of bike lanes that had no physical separation to ones that have it. Another advantage of this is that it got rid of all the debris that used to get pushed to the side by cars.
There's zero reason why every street in a downtown has to be open for cars. Zero. I am convinced that the best way to make safe cycling infrastructure in cities is to make some streets off-limits to motor vehicles save emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles (within posted time windows). What does a street like that look like? It's a pedestrian plaza with a separated two-way "through" bike path in the middle. When a bike rider reaches the block where he or she is going, he or she exits the bike lane and drops to walking speed. This way, people transiting on a bike can maintain speed instead of constantly dodging people on foot.
Heya, Lisbon also completed now an extensive cycling network that allows you to cross the city in multiple ways. A real revolution, if you drop by its another video option. Cheers.
First of all, love the fact that Paris is doing some massive improvements on bicycle structure. However, I absolutely dislike a) the narrow two directional bicycle lane and b) the numerous pedestrian crossings. The first one because of the driving experience being sometimes stressful, because you have a cyclist moving very close in the opposite direction and it makes harder for pedestrians to cross because they need to look in both directions before crossing. This makes it necessary to have pedestrian crossings (my second point). Why do I dislike them? Because cyclists use muscle power (most of them) and many will not stop, because it feels unnatural to stop (they try to keep the momentum). People always complain when I mention that, but I'm just trying to understand the root of that behaviour. And what would be the solution? No pedestrian crossing, people just cross wherever and whenever they like and just check if it really is possible. Cyclists adapt to the given situation, slow down, zigzag around them and voilà! Think I'm talking nonsense? Then I invite you to visit Freiburg im Breisgau where this is exactly the case. I haven't seen anything better than this simple infrastructure which understood that cyclists are not cars and therefore will behave very differently.
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...
Does anyone else find it somewhat ironic that the first reaction when the bike lane is too busy is to widen it? Just add one more lane! That'll fix (bike) traffic!
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
Great topic you brought up: space. I live in a coast city which has a line of hills very close so space is limited. So watching what Paris is doing, I can see that we only need political support and having this "prioritizing cycling" always in mind.
I think we have to start recognizing that these are not "cyclists" (as opposed to drivers). They are ordinary citizens going about their daily business using bikes and walking. In Toronto, the discourse is all about cars "losing" space to cyclists who don't pay road licenses. Bike and bus lanes are viewed by some (probably a minority) as the cause for congestion because cars have less space to pass etc. The same war is going on in Montreal, were people who have parked on the street for free, now complain that they are "losing" their acquired right, even though it is a public street they are parking on.
Same deal in Vancouver. At the moment, the area in and around Stanley Park is a shitshow as the Park Board tries to reclaim car space to "save the failing businesses within the park". So now we're back to car congestion throughout Stanley Park, while bikes are shoved back into traffic and narrow paths. Do better, Vancouver!
But it is in fact about space ans access. Cyclists need room for lanes and parking. So do motorists. Space is limited. So the driver does lose a lane or part of it for the sake of the one on the bike. Sometimes it goes the opposite way. You own your car, you own your bicycle, you don't own the space but a portion of it is set aside for each.
It's great to see these changes but also infuriating that i can't have them in the City I live. A project to make the city less car centric and more bike friendly was almost completed but angry haters stopped it in court. Such changes have to be backed by a good reason, and the mayor used bicycle safety and environmental protection. Court ruled: the first hasn't been proven to be necessary and the second is not considered to be a viable reason by law. There is a large ring around the City center with two lanes for cars in both directions, separated from each other. No bike lane at all, bikes have to mix with cars. Traffic is terrible because of dozens of traffic lights. All cyclists go through the pedestrian area in the city Center instead, which they are officially not allowed to. The city planned to assign the two inner lanes to bikes and busses, bidirectional, and the outer two lanes as a one way road for cars with traffic lights programmed to turn green in sequence as you drive around the city center. It was brilliant. But sadly there were two other construction sites in the city and rush hour turned out terrible. So an angry mob went to court and stopped it.
One thing that makes a difference is that so many people in Paris are already able to live car-free because of good transit and walkability. This makes the political conversation easier, I think.
@@Shifter_Cycling well that was already possible before Hidalgo started going brrrrrrrr on bike lanes 4 years ago when Covid hit, but it's always nice when you get to choose your car-free mode of transportation every morning :)
I think one aspect that you maybe missed in your video : what drove this change is leadership - and a courageous one at that. Anne Hidalgo has faced immense resistance, attacks (usual sexist harassment too) and is paying a very high personal political price in order to stick to the plan. And not only on cycling lane, but on public housing and rent caps too !
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.
It's crazy that such an iconic square like place de la Bastille ever got turned into a roundabout in the first place. Literally the place to be (or not, if you're a monarch i guess) in late 18th century France, and they stripped it of so much of its history just people could drive around in circles on it.
Everywhere was a parking lot back in the 60s in Paris. You can find funny pictures on google with cars parked in front of Notre Dame or the Louvre, as well as the beautiful Place Vendome. I'm happy that we changed this
Nobody would lose their shit over pollution and cars infested roundabouts my friend.
Small detail, but the king of France was decapitated in Place de la Concorde, not Place de la Bastille.
Well, the french do love their roundabouts. Can't walk/bike/drive far here without finding a few. So it's very fitting too, culturally. :D
Couldn't help but notice in the "Prioritizing Cycling" section the change from (loud) traffic to quiet bike street, back to (loud) traffic again as you got to the other end. Kind of says it all.
Excellent point that I didn’t really think about, even while I was adjusting audio levels on the video 😂
"Cities aren't loud: cars are loud." as NJB would say.
@@_yonasyeah, at more, the only non car loud thing in cities is people listening to loud music
@@irgendwer3610 And even that, you have to be really loud about it to beat cars! Arguably it also gives more of a joyful and cultural experience I'd say - like the musicians in the Paris metro and parks!
Actual physical lane separators and not just paint (looking at you Oslo !)
Looking at you, most cities.
@@Shifter_Cycling Actually, Colorado Springs has had, and kept expanding, an off street multiuse pathway network, typically wide, concrete and grade separated. But more recently created on street painted bike lanes (which nearly all drivers seem to ignore). Wrong direction.
My father went to his university there in the late 1950s. We visited the place for a few days in 1979.
To be honest, I do prefer a seperator with paint and it works much better, if drivers would respect it. It gives more space to bicycles (because you can drive on the paint) and you can switch on the road (of course signaling and turning over when the traffic allows it) than being stuck in a slow bicycle lane.
Being someone who cycled both in Paris and Oslo (Foodora) I promise you cycling in Oslo is way better. The problem with Paris is that they scrammed some segregated cycle lanes left or right of busy car lanes yet it seems like the purpose is more to have the cyclists out of the way of the cars instead of creating a nice and quick cycle transportation system. Cycling in Oslo is way safer and quicker since they put more focus on reducing and slowing down car traffic and doing such remove the need of segregated bicycle lanes to increase security.
I have witnessed these changes first-hand, and they are quite amazing! 15 years ago, I lived in the south of Paris and went to school in the north, and mostly used the métro (subway, underground), and occasionally a Vélib. While it was nice to ride through Paris, one needed to be rather thick-skinned to do it. Now cycling has become much easier and less stressful, and many, many more people cycle through Paris.
Oh, Parisian cyclists are no better drivers than Parisian motorists, mind you, but it's good to see my hometown evolve in such a way and so quickly!
Same here in Milan, bikers are not better than motorists when it comes to rules.
Obviously the opposite 'factions' that is just the other to blame for bad behaviours.
A car not behaving according to traffic law is way more dangerous than a bike, though.
I entered Paris via Saint-Lazare and loved the new bike lane to Madeleine. In the stretch from Printemps towards Madeleine I once had three oncoming cars in the bike lane, one insisted they had to go through there. Really needs a bollard, if cars aren't stopped physically, they will do what they want. At least in Paris.
Agreed. Space. If you are a city planner and you have no idea what to do just take a street and rebuild it 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 for cars, bikes and pedestrians. Even if you close a street completely to through traffic the worst case scenario is that we have to move over one block and drive on a different street instead.
This is a formula I can get behind.
@@Shifter_Cyclingthe challenge in NA is rarely insufficient space but rather priorities for the space. I’m in favor of arterials being 4 lanes wide (so traffic can pass and keep going) with roundabouts every 1/4 mile or 400m (about every other block (through traffic would make an easy u-turn while traffic flows slowly but steadily. I’m a bicyclist who thinks a well designed roundabout can be safe for bicyclists, albeit maybe on 2x2-lane configurations (not as much on 4x4-lane).
@@ttopero Only with segregated cycle lanes, and bike priority at every exit/entrance a la the Netherlands. Multi-lane roundabouts are a nightmare for cyclists otherwise. Cars go too fast and "don't see" cyclists as they enter and exit.
@@ttoperomulti-lane raoundabouts are stupid in whatever situation.
I was participating on one of my city's neighbourhood meeting about their plan to put a protected bike lane on a specific stretch of street and one thing the planners mentioned was that they needed to keep the flow of traffic so were against making the street a one way - currently it is a narrow two way + two lanes for parking. That really opened my eyes to all the dependencies of changing even just one smaller street, though this example in Paris makes me think they could be more ambitious with that street (it connects to a few other large ones that could certainly take that extra traffic!)
To add some more additional notes:
- The amelioration of the bike lanes was a stated goal a year ago (or two?) from the city government. It was an acknowledgement that paths were getting ugly and it was time to set them in stone (quite literally, changing cones and barriers to properly laid concrete). There was recent news about a referendum to make heavy cars pay more parking, but the 10th arrondissement also had a local referendum attached to fix the bike lane on Magenta, which is very narrow and runs with pedestrians. Current plans are to put the lane into the parking space. I assume it will be discussed further. People hate that lane, me included.
- The western part of the city is indeed far behind in cycling infrastructure. This is notoriously the richer, older, more conservative part of the city. The gap there is less related to a lack of care but more a heavier opposition by the local leadership. Hidalgo's policies have not been spared from large backlashes of nimbyism and car-brained vitriol. It's worth looking into how the city continues to transform despite that, since a lot of places (especially in NA) tend to capitulate easily to those voices.
- A bit of credit to the previous mayor, Delanoë, who began to add more cycling lanes and (temporary) car-free streets. Most importantly, he was in charge for the launch of the bike share system Velib which has a lot of users. Most of the city's transformation has been in Hidalgo's two terms but Delanoë definitely broke the soil a bit.
- Interesting point at the end at how there might need more pedestrian space (see again the Magenta lane issue). There was also a comment by Camille about adding another lane. Sometimes it can be a pain navigating the mass of cyclists that don't always respect the street. There's a lack of bike parking in the city and it results in a lot of theft from increasingly resourceful thieves. Kind of shows that even with bikes being far superior to cars they are still personal vehicles and carry on a smaller scale similar demands to car drivers.
Would have been cool to see you around, shame it was only a few days. There's a lot to see with the city, but glad you got a video in that time!
Edit: one more
- A city is more than its mayor, currently David Belliard is the deputy in charge of transports since 2020 and is the one really doing the political ground game like going to the community meetings (in comparison, I've never even seen Hidalgo with my own eyes). Christophe Najdovski was his predecessor who was in that position longer. I believe he was on the War on Cars podcast if you want to hear a bit from him directly.
This is fantastic context. Thank you for sharing. This kind of local insight is very valuable.
@@Shifter_Cycling That is what I would like to know to the city before Hidalgo, what laid the ground work for this. 😊
Yes it's a bit like London. Cycling got a massive boost when Boris was mayor, so much that the hire bikes became 'Boris' bikes. But the previous mayor set up the hire scheme, just before he left office.
Under Boris we got some fantastic bike lanes, but I have to agree that Paris has been a lot bolder. They haven't been afraid just to put down the sort concrete blocks (you normally see on roadworks) to create physical separation. I think our traffic engineers would have kittens if anyone suggested this!
Sadly the current mayor of London isn't interested in cycling - he'd prefer everyone to travel by bus!
The 'not capitulating' part is critical. Cambridge just (2023) tried to have a radical Sustainable Transport Zone with a weekday daytime road-charge for motor vehicles moving in, or entering, the city, to make 50 million/yr to pay for a decent bus network and more cycling walking/wheeling infrastructure, but it was shouted down by pro-car/pro-congestion/anti-payment people, and the political will collapsed. Now probably nothing major will happen for a decade and Cambridge remains hopelessly full of congestion with a terrible public transport system and no chance of meeting its emissions reduction requirements. The better transport had 70% support, but the 'paying for it' only had 30% support. If central government was prepared to pay for something like this then maybe it could have been done.
Ottawa, Canada keeps using every excuse to not under a similar transformation for the better. The visionary mayors of Paris and Montreal have made so many improvements and aren't done yet.
Decommissioning two-traffic on many Ottawa roads could provide incredible space for more active living and safe bicycle travel.
I went to Paris last summer and rode bikes around the city with my family and it was wonderful! I fell in love with the city. We need to follow their example in the states
Bonjour from France!
Glad you visited us, and I hope you enjoyed your trip 😊.
Next time you're in Paris, you should meet AltisPlay. Both of you create fantastic content for commuters/shifters. He has also welcomed NotJustBikes and CNN journalists to discuss Paris's transformations in favor of biking!
See you in your next video !
Something that is just absolutely amazing to me where you can just notice a huge difference is when you listen at 4:10 - 4:45. For the first 10 seconds, they are walking and no cars are passing. It's super quiet and calm. Then for about 20 seconds there is a huge amount of noise just from a FEW cars passing by. Then when they have passed you can hear it becomes quiet again.
Cars just make sooooo much noise, and it's really annoying. It's such a relief when non-car areas are built.
Also from 6:00 - 6:20 it's difficult to even hear them, but from 6:20 - 6:30 there are no more cars and it's much easier to hear them.
I notice this every day on my commute to work, I start in a forest, which is very silent because there are no cars there, and the moment I get back on the road it's like a wall of sound hits me all of a sudden
As a Londoner, I'm quite jealous of the transformation Paris is going to. Don't get me wrong, London is also going through its own cycling transformation but the scale and speed Paris has been working at is incredible.
I’ve been to paris many times and always preferred walking over driving and transit, even for longer distances. All the incredible architecture and scenery make a 1.5h walk fly by.
I’m very happy to see the city making efforts to improve walking and cycling infrastructure and reducing space for cars. The fact that they did it so quickly is amazing!Can’t wait to go back and see all the changes!
Montreal is also undergoing a similar transformation. Very excited to see what my city will look like in a few years!
I recently went to Paris, France. I found that neighborhoods vary on bike lane availability as well. Typically, old school mayors (several mayors in France) will be against bikes compared to more cars. For those that realize benefits of bike, they welcome it more.
This tends to happen in many cities with multiple jurisdictions. It’s a difficult one to manage, but we tend to see that, over time, bike lanes prove themselves and the opposition softens. Well, most of the time 😑
That is one of the reasons I guess for the difference in the bike lane continuity between the east and west parts of Paris.
This brings me to tears, just love when a city invests time, energy, and thought on improving life for cyclists and by extension for everyone. Wish London woke up from its sleep and saw how cars are damaging the city, the environment, the neighborhoods and the health of its people.
Nice overview of the infrastructure, it's crazy to recall all these changes! Still missing the intersections to be arranged and the western neighborhoods which are still a nightmare. Perhaps I'll cross your paths in Paris!
*western neighborhoods
@@SympathicSponge you're right, and it's wearing its name well, it's still the western over there
I enjoyed cycling in Paris so much on a trip, it convinced me to cycle in NYC where I live. It just seemed crazy to go back to other forms of transport after a week of cycling and realizing how much happier, healthier, and more productive I was. NYC isn't where Paris is at, but I hope with more cyclists like me it changes.
I've been going to Paris at least once per year for the last seven years, and the transformation has been brilliant. Every time I go, it gets better! I'm going back there in two days and can't wait! For a guy from Los Angeles, even the bad bike lanes there are good mdr (French for lol, haha).
You are so right about the speed with which Paris approached tranfsorming the streets! How they've done it - just build *something* quickly to so have a solid city-wide foundation that is connected throughout - is so important! In my German city we can't even have a painted bike line without years of planning. When they build something proper it is only for a few 100m, then there's nothing again. This change is not accepted by the residents, neither motorists nor cyclists. Resulting in even slower change.
Great video! And well done Paris! One thing that I appreciate here in the Netherlands is the red colour coding of the cycle paths. This makes it clearer where you can safely cycle and for drivers and pedestrians where to expect cyclists. I'm excited to see the progress in the coming years!
yes, AltisPlay, a youtuber who is all about analyzing bike infrastructure is steadily asking about some colour, and not just paint that makes it slippery and doesn't last. Sometimes it's really hard to see where you are supposed to go next
Thanks for the visit, I used to go to Paris every year when I was a kid, my dad would drive for hours and towards the end of the trip when he was tired from driving so much we would arrive at this incredible rond point de la bastille it was an extremely stressful experience for everybody. It seems very peaceful now I'd love to visit again
Excellent. Paris has so many narrow streets it is amazing to see so many recouped for the residents and cyclists. 20,000+ per day on that one route; WOW!
The businesses never suffer for fewer cars. Someone told me our one way main street should be re-opened to 2-way traffic to help business. So by making the pavements narrower and creating more noise and danger, businesses will do better> Funny thing is our neighbouring town pedestrianized their main shopping street, and it is way busier than ours. What do people not get? I'd replace the one way car lane with a two-way bike lane and use the on-street parking to expand pedestrian space, put in more seats, bins, some secure bicycle lockers and leave the small part near the train station open to buses only! There are 2 alternative streets to drive on!
People on cars won't stop if they see a shop they'd like to look at.
People on bike or foot will more likely do.
Great video Tom! Kudos to Paris for just putting bike lanes in and allowing people to ride where they can. I'd love to see my city of Brisbane (AUS) take this idea and just do it!
@Shifter_Cycling would have mentioned the 2021 speed reduction. Paris default speed limit was brought down to 30km/h (from 50km/h). Which made cohabitation in street without bike lane way safer.
Addtionnaly a by product is that since 2008 in the regulation one way street limited to 30km/h had to allow circulation in both way for cycles. This suddenly made a lots of streets accessible to bikes and make circulation so much easier on bike since you are not limited by one-way streets.
Not really. This can be overturned by the local administration, and it was in Paris. You can go both ways, by bike, in 30km/h one-way streets only where it's explicitly allowed. Hopefully it's the case in most of those streets. Last regulation nitpick: when you cycle in one-way streets, in the other direction, you don't have any right to pass. You must yield even to vehicles coming from your left. A lot of cyclists don't know that.
@x My understanding is that as you mention it's applicable only if correct signalization is present. As for "overtunring" it needs to be done street by street with justification and not globally.
In practice, it's available in most one way streets I encounter and getting better (city mention 2/3 already in center with a target of 100% by 2026 for small streets).
Edit: For the right to pass I wondered and could not find something clear enough. Found some source that mention if the obstacle is in the cycle path then he needs to give way. But outside of it the general rule is that the heavier vehicle need to give way to the lighter one. Additionally, the car has to apply the 1m rule when passing a cyclist so without obstruction in either way if the space is not enough I would conclude that the car is forced to stop if it cannot maintain correct separation (while the cyclist do not have to maintain this distance).
Cycling is definitely freedom!
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.
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.
Precisely today I was telling a Parisienne that I wished we could import Anne Hidalgo to Lisbon and send the current mayor away with a kick in the butt... This woman who uses her bike in Paris was complaining about the lack of proper public transportation but she also admitted that the result of allowing too many cars in the city was very obvious in Lisbon’s streets.
What an amazing work she's been doing and thanks for the video!
Awesome video man. It's great to see some positive news. You deserve way more subs and views than you have for the quality of your content.
Thanks for the support. It’s amazing and I appreciate it.
This is fantastic information to spread. In a community in Southern California they could really benefit from bike paths for cyclists so they don't knock down the pedestrians walking on sidewalks. Perhaps this transition can be adopted across the board too! Merci beaucoup.❤
Thanks for a hopeful message!
Wow, thank you so much for the support. This is really very helpful and motivating.
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.
i know ill sound like a arrogant dutch person.... But welcome to the club. Its good to see more and more places where they rebalance the space for transport methods people want to use. I am a big fan of our dutch bicycle paths mostly because i use them daily but also they can be used (with some other places i am sure) as an examples to others. It's a pity that lessons like 'shops will hate it' have to be relearned so often but i guess thats human nature. Great to see Paris moving forward at a speed most would not have figured possible. Greetings from Utrecht / Netherlands.
Amazing to see the transformation over a relatively short period of time.
Great video, thanks. When I travel I head for Paris. Two channels you have probably found which show lots of developing cycling infrastructure: Paris Cycling & Transit Stuff, and FranceWheeler.
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
This is really enheartening.
Picking a random frame... 11 cars/vans, 29 cyclists. The cars were still taking up more space.
I must complement Paris for the political commitment it took to fast track their bike lane development. I was in Paris 20 years ago when traffic was gridlocked and parking was impossible. Like to learn the experience of the city official and citizen during this transformation. Bravo Paris. I have to visit you again, now as a cyclist!
Paris deserves so many accolades for the change it is affecting. It's not perfect, but it's moving faster than any North American city. Bravo!
Great video Tom. I was there almost a year ago and went to many of the locations you just visited. There was evidence of profound change even in that short space of time.
I love how you put the before and after footage.
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.
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!
Very cool to see, thanks for the great video!
New York needs to take some notes! "Not enough room for a bike lane", but two lanes for subsidized on-street parking on nearly every single street.
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?
There are some really drastic changes, I am beyond impressed with the leadership to enact real change so quickly. Paris is such a compact walkable city, going by bike would be such a joy, and i can't wait to visit again someday soon. Thanks for the outstanding video, it good to have inspiration for what we can do with the pollical will and support of a city's people.
it has been a joy for ever except now it's slow and more dangerous
@@raph151515 No it's much less dangerous now, the number of cyclists has skyrocketed but accidentology only very slightly increased.
(In layman's terms : the number of cyclists increased a LOT nore than the number of accidents, meaning that the risk of accident cyclist has lowered, also the severity of accidents has lowered).
It's only slower for cars, it's faster for bikes and all soft mobility devices.
You really think it's always been a joy to ride a bike in Paris? It was awful between 1955 and early 2000's, all the space was for cars.
Now they have less space and bikes have a lot more.
@@KyrilPGno it's half as fast as before, but I'm talking about people that can pedal of course, if you're talking about the ones plugging the lanes at very low speed while checking their tiktok that never learned to use a bicycle, yes for them it's 10% faster, so 10% of the whole road users got a boost, well done, but 90% had their speed cut in half. Before there was room, now there is room for no one, they made the whole city one way single lane, what a progress ! even if there is only half the number of cars, the amount of traffic is still doubled because the average trip takes 4 times what it used to take. Having cars sitting so much has raised the pollution levels, which makes doing exercise more dangerous for your health. This blend of politics is about virtue signaling, not actual results. Yes having everybody crawl makes less accident, why not stopping all travel, it will save lives ! or why not going backward, after all, most of the accident happens when we travel forward.
@@raph151515 I live there, in the 19th.
It's MUCH faster for cyclists. Except of course if you refer to the cycling traffic jam of Sebastopol boulevard at rush hour. And even then, a bike jam is still way more fluid than a car jam.
There wasn't more space before, cyclists were stuck between a bus and the curb in the best case scenario.
Or were out in the wild with cars in most other cases.
The streets haven't been widened nor narrowed, space was taken from cars and given to cyclists and pedestrians.
Only cars slowed down.
And no, there isn't more pollution, stop watching CNEWS it rots the brain. The level of micro particules has lowered, because less cars can pass in the same street, even if the street seems just as occupied.
The faster a car goes, the more it emits particules.
Between 10 cars moving very slowly and 20 moving faster, it's the fewer number at lower speeds that emit the least particules.
Virtue signaling is talking a lot and not doing anything transformational. What was done transformed a lot.
Now half my building rides a bike, my plumber rides a cargo e-bike and dumped his van...
It changed a lot of things for the better.
@@raph151515 After having checked your other messages : seems like you were a "guerrilla cyclist", also known as an organ donor in the medical field.
I was too when there were no bike lanes, taking the Étoile circle head-on, putting my foot on car's front hoods, hitting them with my hand to scare them shltless...
It was a fight, a quite exhilarating, yet dangerous, fight.
But how many of us could actually do that?
A very small minority.
Most people were frightened by the traffic and lack of cycling amenities.
The average people just wanted a much more secured path to cycle, and the lanes allowed that.
Today, it's much faster and easier for the normal cyclist.
And just as before for the guerrilla one, or even better.
There are also M12 signs almost everywhere now, which allow us to pass red lights legally, which was not the case before.
So I really doubt that you were able to go faster before while staying within the boundaries of the law.
30 years ago the red lights were already timed for an average speed of 20 or 25km/h (since the 90's), so if you went faster, you were most certainly illegally passing red lights.
Now you can go faster and pass plenty of red lights perfectly legally, thanks to the M12 signs.
You're just complaining about not being the (almost) only cyclist in the street anymore. Which is a pretty selfish and elitist point of view.
You're no longer the exception, me neither, get on with it.
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!
Really great video, thanks for showcasing this
Love that they made these changes, I hope more places adopt what happened here.
"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 😅)
Obligatory engagement comment: amazing changes in Paris!
I'm American living for years now in Lyon, France. You should visit this city one day, the changes are happening fast! They recently had to expand the main bike route because there were too many bikes during rush hour haha it deserves a visit :)
Lyon already was improving bicycle infrastructure 15 years ago. They were ahead of Paris. It’s a pity that all attention now goes to Paris, while Lille, Lyon, Nantes and probably other French cities were doing this before.
Great video! I live in El Paso and they have done very little making our streets safe for bicycles. It's good to know there are places that are devoting their resources to this endeavor.
Lovely video, thanks for visiting France I hope you had great time in Paris!
This is amazing! Thanks for showing us around Paris
Great video, its inspiring yo see the changes being made to improve the city!
Love her shoes! You should ask her where she got them and upgrade your shoe game, to go along with your new wardrobe.
Yes, nice chelsea boots !
Lovely video, as always. You make an excellent point around 13:00 about trying to engineer your way out of it. In Switzerland, the land of diplomacy and compromise, there's excellent car AND public transport infrastructure, but in the very old cities, this approach of trying to do everything is hitting a limit, mostly of space. You have to prioritize, and unfortunately, it's become a significant source of conflict. In Switzerland, nobody would dare a bold experiment the way Paris is and just build something. If it can't be done in a way that satisfies everybody, often you don't do anything at all. Things are moving, but there's a long way to go.
Very good. Thanks for sharing this
If all goes well, I'll be back in Paris in November. Last time I was there was in 2019, and the changes since then look amazing. I'm not even much of a cyclist, but Paris felt like it had the bones to be a wonderful walking city if it wasn't for the absolutely insane amount of cars. I'm very excited to see it again.
It is so interesting to view the contrast of the cities you visit in Canada and the EU vs the US. We here in the US are so adverse to cyclists. Now with e-bikes becoming more popular states want to keep them off of bike paths while at the same time limit their speed committing them to faster overtaking traffic. Key Biscayne Florida has actually outlawed e-bikes from their city. States are using every conceivable excuse there is to regulate, license and tax. You would think a progressive state like California would welcome clean energy e-bike commutes thus eliminating ICE urban concentrations but instead the state is putting up roadblocks to tax, inspect and license.
Very good guide with excellent English!
Paris also is enforcing charges for SUV owners entering Paris central part. Bigger cars occupy more place.
Man, I am jealous of all that bike infrastructure.
The city I am from used to be known for it's biking community a few generations ago, but there's not a single bike lane to be found. I haven't been hit by a car yet though, so I guess some of it remains.
Absolutely wonderful
This looks amazing. I will go to Paris in 1month with some friends just to ride around! Awesome.
Im so glad there are cities stating these strong examples. This will put pressure on 'conservatists' in other cities who defend cars against all odds
That was a great tour. Thanks!
Great video, Tom. Paris has made amazing advances under Ann Hidalgo but has far to go. A lot of their new "infrastructure" is paint but those lanes that were just claimed for bikes under the guise of being temporary like Janet Khan's use in NYC soon became accepted and made permanent. This is the way forward. Once the change in use of the lanes has be come accepted they can be made physically separate and AAA safe.
Very curious too to see how Paris will look in a decade !
I love your city videos. Please more of that
Paris is weird in that it's a lovely city but apparently still getting nicer every day.
I can't believe how recent some of these improvements were!
Hypothesis; uphill cycling lanes are more importantant than downhill ones.
(edit: because drivers get frustrated with slow bikes blocking them, which is less likley on a decline, due to speed)
(As a Scot, the cities I have lived in are not flat, so uphill bikes are very slow)
Anyone any thoughts? If space is an issue, prioritisation may be important.
Just turn around.....problem SOLVED!
I’d love to hear more …
@@Shifter_CyclingFrom me?
Uphill is just downhill in the other direction. Most journeys are out and back so the logical conclusion is that all bike lanes are important.
@@Surestick88 And yet drivers get less annoyed with faster downhill travel, ideally both, but if I had to pick one, I would choose uphill.
In 1987, I cycled through the alps and ended up taking the TGV (still Orange and new !) frm St-Rahaël to Paris, but my bike had t travel on overnight train and I would only get it next day. So I walked from gate de Lyon to the St-Germain neighbourhood on west bank and saw the traffic. Next morning, I walked back (or took métro) to Gare de Lyon to get bike and there was NO WAY I would bike in that crazy traffic. Not even close. And I had biked though cities before without fear. So it is amazing what happened to Paris since Annie Hidalgo took over to make cycling in the city possible. (Of you look at first Bourne movie, you will see him race on the road along la Seine which has since been closed). COVID was a huge boost because during height of it, it was a lot easier to reduce car capacity since people weren't driving t work but needed exercise so politicaly easier, and once this proved to be a success, it became muchy easier to leave them in and then forge forwrad with the "it works" ammunition in hand.
The French TV programme Parigo covered this quite a bit in recent years. (alas not on UA-cam anymore due to rights issues).
what bs, I was born there, I never was afraid of riding a bike in traffic. I could cross half of the city in 10 min (going downhill) Now I would never ride a bicycle there, it's not practical and the benefits (speed) have been destroyed. The only big issue for us real die hard bike users in paris are bike thieves which are even more numerous now thanks to the government so you must own a shitty bike with 4 pounds heavy chains. People comment here like they know shit, you were not in Paris biking every day in the past 30 years to understand and judge what Delanoe and Hidalgo did, what they did is very expensive for everybody there but the results are not there. The only sure thing is that nobody can travel nicely now. More than half of the people I know from Paris left the region, good job Hidalgo.
Good to see Paris inserting some Dutch sanity in that chaotic city.
Loved my visits in the past but STRESSful for a Southern paysanne de Pays-bas.
Camille get an upright bike, your back will thank you and the improved vieuw is much safer.
Tier, dott, lime, velib and veligo (subsidized ebikes) also add an easy way to use bikes you can use one way. As a Canadian in Paris I really appreciated them for 1 way trips.
Somebody get this video in front of the mayor of Ottawa!!
Now I want to visit Paris! ❤❤❤
Edmonton has changed a lot of bike lanes that had no physical separation to ones that have it. Another advantage of this is that it got rid of all the debris that used to get pushed to the side by cars.
There's zero reason why every street in a downtown has to be open for cars. Zero. I am convinced that the best way to make safe cycling infrastructure in cities is to make some streets off-limits to motor vehicles save emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles (within posted time windows). What does a street like that look like? It's a pedestrian plaza with a separated two-way "through" bike path in the middle. When a bike rider reaches the block where he or she is going, he or she exits the bike lane and drops to walking speed. This way, people transiting on a bike can maintain speed instead of constantly dodging people on foot.
Heya, Lisbon also completed now an extensive cycling network that allows you to cross the city in multiple ways. A real revolution, if you drop by its another video option.
Cheers.
First of all, love the fact that Paris is doing some massive improvements on bicycle structure. However, I absolutely dislike a) the narrow two directional bicycle lane and b) the numerous pedestrian crossings. The first one because of the driving experience being sometimes stressful, because you have a cyclist moving very close in the opposite direction and it makes harder for pedestrians to cross because they need to look in both directions before crossing. This makes it necessary to have pedestrian crossings (my second point). Why do I dislike them? Because cyclists use muscle power (most of them) and many will not stop, because it feels unnatural to stop (they try to keep the momentum). People always complain when I mention that, but I'm just trying to understand the root of that behaviour. And what would be the solution? No pedestrian crossing, people just cross wherever and whenever they like and just check if it really is possible. Cyclists adapt to the given situation, slow down, zigzag around them and voilà! Think I'm talking nonsense? Then I invite you to visit Freiburg im Breisgau where this is exactly the case. I haven't seen anything better than this simple infrastructure which understood that cyclists are not cars and therefore will behave very differently.
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...
Does anyone else find it somewhat ironic that the first reaction when the bike lane is too busy is to widen it? Just add one more lane! That'll fix (bike) traffic!
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
Great topic you brought up: space. I live in a coast city which has a line of hills very close so space is limited. So watching what Paris is doing, I can see that we only need political support and having this "prioritizing cycling" always in mind.
This is so important. A a Parisian living in LA it really resonates with the debates happening in the city about bike lanes right now.
I think we have to start recognizing that these are not "cyclists" (as opposed to drivers). They are ordinary citizens going about their daily business using bikes and walking. In Toronto, the discourse is all about cars "losing" space to cyclists who don't pay road licenses. Bike and bus lanes are viewed by some (probably a minority) as the cause for congestion because cars have less space to pass etc. The same war is going on in Montreal, were people who have parked on the street for free, now complain that they are "losing" their acquired right, even though it is a public street they are parking on.
Same deal in Vancouver. At the moment, the area in and around Stanley Park is a shitshow as the Park Board tries to reclaim car space to "save the failing businesses within the park". So now we're back to car congestion throughout Stanley Park, while bikes are shoved back into traffic and narrow paths. Do better, Vancouver!
But it is in fact about space ans access. Cyclists need room for lanes and parking. So do motorists. Space is limited. So the driver does lose a lane or part of it for the sake of the one on the bike. Sometimes it goes the opposite way. You own your car, you own your bicycle, you don't own the space but a portion of it is set aside for each.
It's great to see these changes but also infuriating that i can't have them in the City I live. A project to make the city less car centric and more bike friendly was almost completed but angry haters stopped it in court. Such changes have to be backed by a good reason, and the mayor used bicycle safety and environmental protection. Court ruled: the first hasn't been proven to be necessary and the second is not considered to be a viable reason by law.
There is a large ring around the City center with two lanes for cars in both directions, separated from each other. No bike lane at all, bikes have to mix with cars. Traffic is terrible because of dozens of traffic lights. All cyclists go through the pedestrian area in the city Center instead, which they are officially not allowed to.
The city planned to assign the two inner lanes to bikes and busses, bidirectional, and the outer two lanes as a one way road for cars with traffic lights programmed to turn green in sequence as you drive around the city center.
It was brilliant. But sadly there were two other construction sites in the city and rush hour turned out terrible. So an angry mob went to court and stopped it.
Superb!!!
Considered subscribing! ❤️🚲
3 of 4 lanes given to cyclist! Love it. That’s a pipe dream here in the US.
One thing that makes a difference is that so many people in Paris are already able to live car-free because of good transit and walkability. This makes the political conversation easier, I think.
@@Shifter_Cycling well that was already possible before Hidalgo started going brrrrrrrr on bike lanes 4 years ago when Covid hit, but it's always nice when you get to choose your car-free mode of transportation every morning :)
Cries in Sydney, Australia.
I think one aspect that you maybe missed in your video : what drove this change is leadership - and a courageous one at that. Anne Hidalgo has faced immense resistance, attacks (usual sexist harassment too) and is paying a very high personal political price in order to stick to the plan. And not only on cycling lane, but on public housing and rent caps too !
Another really interesting video about how city planners are making the city more liveable and create spaces for pedestrians and cyclists. Thanks Tom!
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.
I want to live in a city where "induced demand" on bike lines is a thing!
Amazing!