A report from French newspaper Le Monde paints a vivid portrait of the city’s evolving cycling culture, revealing a surge in two-wheeled activity that has captured the attention of cyclists and urban enthusiasts alike.
EDIT: This article is half a year old. Didn’t realise when posting sorry.
This is actually making me want to visit Paris.
I never seriously considered visiting Paris before, because to me it was just another western city choked by cars. In fact, I go to other countries with the intention to move around using bikes and public transit, and I’m disappointed if it’s not possible.
So, since the city and the mayor started to “roll out the red carpet” for bikes, I’m much more tempted to go there. It seems more pleasant. I would rent a bike, slowly explore the city, and see how they are transforming it to be more human.
Also, I speak French natively and it’s been pretty entertaining to see all the comments on social media from pro car people. One thing that came up frequently was that removing cars and replacing them with bikes would “wreck Paris”.
Yup. Every time I hear people saying “but nobody uses the bike lanes!”, I’m reminded that if we prioritized active transportation, drivers would be in the minority.
And that’s probably why we don’t prioritize active transportation. Gotta keep the status quo! 🤷♂️
Indeed, the fact they’re not clogged up with traffic doesn’t mean they’re not used !
I was there recently. So many cyclists and cargobikes. It was glorious. Even chanced upon a flashmob with weird and tall-bikes at one point.
france is catching up.
Biking 10 years ago, you would complain about idiots parking on rare “bande cyclable”, trash cans left on bike lanes and cars ignoring cyclists. Now, at last, we can complain about cyclists riding “contre-sens”.
Hey NY! Now we too have salmons!Salmons?
It means “going against the stream” either on a one way street or bike lane.
