• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, July 11, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

Paris Pushes Vision of ‘100-Percent Bikeable’ City

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
10/21/21
in Environment
A bike on Paris streets.

Photo: Davyn Ben/Unsplash

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The city of Paris on Thursday promised to develop its network of secure cycling lanes as part of a five-year plan to make the French capital “100-percent bikeable” with 250 million euros ($290 million) of extra spending.

Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, who runs Paris with support from the Green party, placed a push for more bike-friendly policies at the center of her platform that got her re-elected by a wide margin in June of last year.

She is now also the Socialist party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, hoping to unseat President Emmanuel Macron, but her campaign has got off to a woeful start with single-digit ratings.

Her policies have found wide support among the capital’s urban elites with short commutes, but they are seen as a much harder sell in the rest of the country.

“Our target is to make our city 100 percent bikeable,” David Belliard, deputy mayor in charge of urban transformation and Green party member, told AFP.

Some 180 million euros of new spending is earmarked for infrastructure, including plans for major bike routes across the city and into surrounding suburbs, and additional measures to make crossings and key entry points into inner Paris safer for cyclists, Belliard said.

Some flashpoints will get dedicated paths for cyclists and pedestrians completely separate from any car traffic, he added.

The city already spent 150 million euros on an initial biking plan, calling this the start of a “revolution” for the capital.

An added sense of urgency came with the Covid-19 pandemic that sparked a rapid extension of the city’s cycling path network, dubbed “corona-pistes”, as commuters shunned public transport for fear of infection.

As part of the new plan, those lanes, often hastily built to meet sudden demand, are to be made permanent and secure.

By 2026 the Parisian network of safe cycling paths is to total 180 kilometers (112 miles). Cyclists will be allowed to use one-way streets against oncoming car traffic on another 390 kilometers of streets.

Bike-friendly Paris?

The mayor’s bike-friendly policies have sparked anger from motorists, with decisions such as turning stretches of urban motorways along the river Seine over to bikes and pedestrians.

Paris now often makes it into the top leagues of the world’s most bike-friendly cities, ahead of any other mega-city, although still well behind European cycling models Copenhagen and Amsterdam. 

The city also plans to help prevent bike theft, which Belliard said was “one of the obstacles to bicycle use”.

By 2026, he said, Paris would have 100,000 new dedicated parking spots for bikes, of which 40,000, notably near train and metro stations, would be guarded.

Paris will also curb inner-car traffic further, aiming to end cross-city car transit completely, and cutting car traffic by half in a designated city center zone.

Schools in the capital are to boost bike training to ensure that “all young Parisians know how to ride a bike when they leave primary school”, Belliard said.

Hidalgo, who will also face Green candidate Yannick Jadot in the election, is now looking to kickstart her flagging presidential campaign with a rally in the city of Lille on Sunday.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Emmanuel Macron
World

France to Remember Charlie Hebdo Attacks 10 Years On

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 6, 2025
Emmanuel Macron
World

Macron Calls for ‘Ruthless’ Govt Response After Teacher Killed

by Staff Writer
October 16, 2023
A woman checks the website of Israel-made Pegasus spyware
World

European Companies Sold Spyware to Despots: Media

by Staff Writer
October 6, 2023
Air France flights
World

Niger Bans French Aircraft From Its Airspace: Aviation Authority 

by Staff Writer
September 25, 2023
Man holding up a colored LGBT flag
World

France Sets Up Embassy Fund to Defend LGBTQ Rights

by Staff Writer
September 19, 2023
migrants
Refugees

Migrant Channel Crossings Top 100,000 Since 2018: UK Data

by Staff Writer
August 11, 2023
Next Post
Alec Baldwin

Prop Gun Fired by Alec Baldwin Kills Woman on Set: Police

greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse Gas Levels Reach New Record High: UN

Recommended

Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025
US President Donald Trump

US Senate Edges Towards Vote on Trump’s Divisive Spending Bill

June 30, 2025
Protests in Hong Kong in 2019.

Hong Kong’s Dragnet Widens 5 Years After National Security Law

June 27, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post