Bicycle traffic in Paris

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The bicycle traffic in Paris , which had almost disappeared in the 1980s, has increased since much so that it has once again become a significant part of the Paris transport system.

Development of bicycle traffic

Paris traffic in 1938, with women cyclists

Paris traffic today: separate lane for buses and bicycles

While cycling was widespread in the interwar period , in Paris as elsewhere in France and Europe, it was gradually displaced after 1945. In Paris in the 1980s, there was little cycling. In 1991 car traffic was 85 times greater than bicycle traffic. From the 1990s onwards, there was a decline in car traffic and the bicycle was rediscovered by many Parisians. This trend reversal, which has continued unabated since then, has led to an extremely rapid increase in cycling, which is reflected in an annual growth rate of 12 to 13% between 1991 and 2010 (the last year for which data are available). Overall, cycling increased tenfold between 1991 and 2010. In 2010, the number of trips Parisians made by bike (280,000 per day) was equivalent to a third of their car trips. Should the regular trends observed over the past 20 years continue in the near future, cycling would outpace car traffic in Paris in the 2020s.

Cycling facilities

The first cycle path dates back to 1979, but it was not until 1996 that the construction of the cycle infrastructure and a network of 30 km / h zones were systematized. In 2015, the cycling network was 740 km long, and 1400 km are planned for 2020. Tempo 30 zones cover a third of the city.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Julien Demade, Les embarras de Paris, ou l'illusion techniciste de la politique des déplacements , Paris, L'Harmattan, 2015, pp. 81–85, 100–101, 136–137 and 225.