7 ms·

Paris Closed 100 Streets to Cars for Good. Now, the City Is a Cyclists' Paradise

90 points by madeofpalk 2y ago

knorker 2y ago
Not just cyclists, of course, but also pedestrians and people living there.
- zuminator 2y ago
  I know it's completely illusory considering the vastly different fatality rate, but as a pedestrian I often feel more at risk dodging cyclists, who completely disregard traffic signals, ride on sidewalks, and make frequently unpredictable movements, than cars, which follow traffic signals 95% of the time, don't generally operate on sidewalks, and tend to be more predictable, although the results can be catastrophically worse when they are negligently operated. The number of fatalities caused by cyclists is very small, but still non-zero. Here's some stats for New York City: > In 2022 (the last full year for which there is data), three pedestrians were killed by cyclists, while 131 pedestrians and cyclists were killed by car and truck drivers. In that same year, 313 pedestrians were injured by cyclists, while 13,190 cyclists and pedestrians were injured by car and truck drivers.[0] I've also seen numbers that there are about 600K cycling "trips" taken each day in NYC[1], versus 4 million cars per day driving in or through the city[2]. While those stats aren't measuring exactly the same thing, it appears that there's basically a 10x order of magnitude difference between the two forms of transportation. With that in mind, looking at the previous fatality numbers, bikes are still admittedly 4-5x safer than cars given equal use. Even so, if we managed to get rid of 80-90% of motor vehicles, we would reach a point where in raw numbers people would be more likely to be injured or killed by bicycles than cars. At that point, I wonder if insurance would be required? [0] https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/16/senior-struck-by-citi-bike-has-died https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/16/senior-struck-by-citi... [1] https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/cyclinginthecity.shtml https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/cyclinginthecit... [2] https://www.nydailynews.com/2019/03/21/why-not-charge-cars-to-enter-all-new-york-city-streets-a-bigger-congestion-pricing-idea/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2019/03/21/why-not-charge-cars-t...
  - knorker 2y ago
    All true. But one should also consider the cyclist's view, which is that once the cars are gone, people walk wherever and however they want, bike lane or not. That's not to say that "it's their own fault for getting hit", of course. The proper comparison should be cars there vs no cars there. Once the cars are gone everything changes. No longer do bikes need to swerve around cars. Suddenly there's room for them. So that could reduce the risk of them hitting a pedestrian. Very often a car can block an entire intersection, because they gambled that they'd get through, but then got stuck. A bike will never block things like that. And I'd wager those cases are much more dangerous for all kinds of accidents. The car may be blocking visibility, so that the cyclist and the pedestrian can no longer see each other. But my comment was actually not about safety. It was about quality of life. It just happens that it ALSO improves safety.
    - hooverd 2y ago
      Cyclists can never be at fault, they can only be faulted. It's always the responsibility of drivers, transit, pedestrians to watch out. If you are a cyclist, you have the divine right to scream obscenities at anyone who dares interrupt your path. Although, if two cyclists collide in an intersection, that's the unstoppable force vs immovable object scenario of assigning blame. I am a bike commuter, but guys like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFimQobFGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFimQobFGo) give us a bad reputation.
      - knorker 2y ago
        I do see many cyclists blatantly violating traffic rules. But I'm not even sure cyclists are more prone to do so than drivers. Stand at an intersection and count how many times light turning red does not have a car sneak right after. Or stop with half the car over the stop line. Or motorcycles being in front, in the bike-only area. Or drivers who treat bike lanes as "oh I'll just stop here 10 minutes, who cares?". My experience with cycling in cities is that you quickly discover that basically nobody obeys any traffic rules. Cyclists are just the ones doing it the most blatantly, because honestly when they do it it's not actually that unsafe.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
TheChaplain 2y ago
I'd love to have a bicycle, but battery powered angle grinders are too cheap.
- PreInternet01 2y ago
  Also cheap: bike insurance, with "we'll drop your new bike within 1hr of you reporting the theft" SLAs. At least, where I live... (and where my last bike was stolen, like, over a decade ago).
- latentcall 2y ago
  When I was in Amsterdam it seemed most people had cheap beater bikes for that very reason. If someone had a nicer bike they’d bring it into their flat.
  - bradlys 2y ago
    Doesn’t really help if you’re going out to places and there’s nowhere to bring your bike into. E.g. a restaurant.
    - prmoustache 2y ago
      I have been spending a few days in another french city and seen some bikes stored at the back of some restaurants, next to the toilets. Sure it can t be applied to all restaurants but cyclists can choose their place of choice based on how cycling friendly they are.
  - milkytron 2y ago
    I do this in Denver, where bike theft is supposedly rampant. Never had an issue, and I live in one of the worse areas and will leave my bike parked and unattended for hours at a time. I also sticker bombed one of my bikes so that if someone were to steal it, it would be very easily identifiable.
    - giraffe_lady 2y ago
model-15-DAV 2y ago
Other major cities must start making significant headway in this direction. As a New Yorker, I am very interested in getting rid of all cars in NYC. NYC (Specifically, Governor Hochul) has "indefinitely paused" the rollout of a new congestion pricing system for cars in Manhattan, which was a step in the right direction perhaps, but certainly not a solution by any means. Following Paris' lead and removing parking spaces, streets, and improving more sustainable transit is the only way forward if we want to start mitigating climate instability. NYC I feel is one of the few (if only!) cities in America that has the ability to get rid of all private cars within 10 years. We could also become a cyclists' paradise! We need to give the politicians a mandate to accomplish this or they will flail about as always until we all get swallowed up by a tsunami or something.
- mtalantikite 2y ago
  I'm really bummed that they canceled congestion pricing. We almost did the right thing for the city and the planet, and of course at the last minute some politicians have to go and fuck it up. They're really the worst.
  - lnxg33k1 2y ago
    I also am against policies that only allow rich to do stuff, annoyed by this idea that rich can always buy their way out of things, if there’s a problem with cars then just ban it for all
    - Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago
      Ironically, its the rich who mostly likely put the pressure on to kill this bill.
    - mtalantikite 2y ago
      I wouldn’t be opposed to making tolls and fines income based, like some Nordic countries. I once was finishing up eating at Astro diner (iirc) on 55th and 6th and some guy in a lambo double parked across the street on 6th, blocking traffic, and just left it there. Cops came pretty quickly and were ticketing it, but there’s no way the person driving a $400k car cares about a $100 ticket. When we walked out they were still trying to figure out what to do, as they weren’t even sure a tow company would come to take it.
PreInternet01 2y ago
Well, as an Amsterdam resident, I would not go as far as to describe Paris as a cyclist's paradise, but the recent pedestrian/cycle-friendly road repurposing has definitely improved the city, pretty much for everyone, as far as I can tell. Now, let's just hope the local cyclists don't adopt the same combative attitude as, say, those in Amsterdam, or the many, many remaining motorists on La Periferie...
- Fradow 2y ago
  While I have not cycled in Amsterdam, as a Parisian cyclist I can confirm. Paris is currently overwhelmingly better than what's in most other big cities, but still far away from being as good as the Netherlands infrastructures. There are still a lot of oddities, insufficient infrastructure, and cycling no-man's land. But yes, it has overall made things better for everyone, even for the remaining motorists: as reduced demand have kicked in, the remaining motorists (as far as my observations go) experience less traffic. Of course, there is a LOT less cars now. Though now, bicycle lane jams are actually happening ... Which is a good problem to have I guess.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  > Now, let's just hope the local cyclists don't adopt the same combative attitude as, say, those in Amsterdam, or the many, many remaining motorists on La Periferie... The combative attitude exists regardless of the vehicles. Heck even pedestrians have similar attitudes in busy places.
datavirtue 2y ago
This is starting up in US cities as well.
- dawnerd 2y ago
  One nearest me trying but they are more interested in giving the road and sidewalks to bar owners as an extension of their business. Not walking just a couple tables like you see everywhere. During Covid they let them build pretty large outdoor structures right into the road. Naturally all of the units are owned by a single corporation, which of course is pushing for it.
- gnulinux 2y ago
  It's a very slow progress. Boston has been making tons and tons of progress over the last few years that impressed me but any benefit public derived from increasing bike lanes, safer bike lanes etc were essentially undone by the absolute unspeakable clusterfuck public transportation became (frequent subway closures due to maintenance, practically unusable bus service due to disgusting amount of traffic, no investment etc...). I am hopeful things will improve steadily and Boston will be a European-lite city in USA in the next decade or so, but I might be too optimistic. It's relatively practical to bike in NYC and Philadelphia as well. I personally enjoy biking in NYC but many New Yorkers complain about safety, which makes sense given how chaotic and aggressive NYC traffic is, you do not want to be a meat pie on the road. We have tons of more progress to do, not enough investment into this because 99% of Americans who don't live inside a major non-driving big city don't give a shit about non-car transportation.
downvotetruth 2y ago
[flagged]
- com 2y ago
  Amsterdammer here. Totally doable, helps if the hills aren’t too steep. Powered vehicles do come and go where I am (street cleaning etc) and it’s possible for planned things like house moves or demolitions. I imagine Paris will do similar stuff.
  - downvotetruth 2y ago
    What about the disabled / wheel chair bound? Is there an exception for them too? That is a great way to game the system. Hire "disabled" delivery drivers.
    - toomuchtodo 2y ago
      https://wheelchairtravel.org/amsterdam/sidewalks/ https://wheelchairtravel.org/amsterdam/sidewalks/ https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/public-transportation https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/publ... https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/disabled-parking-in-amsterdam https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/disa... https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/transport-disability/parking-card-disabilities-people/netherlands/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/transport-disab... https://old.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/111bmca/disabled_access_in_amsterdam/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/111bmca/disabled...
      - robertlagrant 2y ago
        Tl;dr: Amsterdam is flat, so it's manageable.
        toomuchtodo 2y ago
        Where would it be substantially challenging? SF comes to mind, but where else?
throwaway22032 2y ago
I like cycling but I think that removing vehicles entirely from cities is silly. It might be possible but it's not going to be actually better. I'm imagining strapping 100kg+ of toolboxes to the front of my electric cargo bike. It theoretically is possible. But if someone walks out in front of that it's going to be ugly. The braking systems are nowhere near as good as a car's. If it rains it'll be miserable, I'd put up my rates significantly to compensate and a lot of people would rather just exit the market. It feels like once you actually account for real things that need to happen like vans carting building materials, you're back where you started except that now everyone needs a license to do the same things they did before in their "personal" vehicles. If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really.
- itishappy 2y ago
  > If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really. An engine moving thousands of pounds of cargo is a lot more efficient than an engine moving move two hundred pounds of flesh.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    Also lorries and delivery vans use can be limited to specific time window. That is what actually happen in historic city centers that are closed to traffic in many european cities: delivery vehicles can still deliver goods at specific time schedules in the morning when the streets are less busy with pedestrians and they have to do so at low speed.
- Clamchop 2y ago
  > If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really. Disagree strongly. Special access sharply reduces the number of vehicles, of course, but it also changes the natures of the people driving them. A larger proportion will be professionally-employed drivers and moving through a pedestrian-only area that lacks a defined right of way or traffic devices is going to compel most drivers to move at a creeping pace. Traffic citations are more likely under these circumstances as well. Buses and trams (there's little practical difference when the bus right of way might as well be rails) are unlikely to be operated by aggressive, inattentive, inexperienced, or inebriated drivers, and they're more predictable. On emissions, there are reductions, first because fewer drivers overall, fewer low-occupancy vehicles with no cargo, and then second order effects on car ownership and miles driven for nearby communities.
indoordin0saur 2y ago
Walking and biking around Paris always seemed stressful with the narrow sidewalks, hectic traffic, and mopeds going the wrong way up sidewalks. Maybe it has changed, I was last there in 2022, but if so this must have been a dramatic change.
olivierduval 2y ago
Let's be clear: this article is at best ill-informed or completly partial. For examples: > the city voted to triple parking charges for the biggest, most polluting cars Mmmm... not really. Participation was 5,68% of people living in Paris (only! without any consideration for the suburb). And the Mayor said first that only "outsider" would be taxed... and changed her mind after the vote. The Anne Hidalgo's plan seem to turn Paris into some kind of Disneyland Park. Would you spend your life in such a park? Actually, even Parisian are less and less fond of this "greenification" of Paris because it causes more and more problems for them too (OK, they don't give a shit if it makes problem for suburbs people working in Paris... but now it starts to impact them too) Companies are leaving Paris (too expensive) and people are thinking twice before accepting a job offer inside Paris because of transportation. Actually, the situation is so bad that public transportation are asking since month to people and companies to work remotly during the Olympics because... well... it will be a real nightmare. And not everybody will have a bicyle So, watch what you're wishing for. It's nice to be able to use bicyle from time to time when you want... but it's a bit different to have transportation problems because cars that absolutly must cross Paris (taxis, ambulance, people living there, truck that recharge shops...) are all stacked up in less and less street to develop cycling [Edit] For the record, I live in Paris...
- aziaziazi 2y ago
  > if it makes problem for suburbs people working in Paris I live in suburb and cycle everyday to Paris inner center for work. I see every year more and more cyclist riding the new infrastructures, but the road are as bloated in their jam as they always have been. > cars that absolutly must cross Paris The point is precisely that most of the transit does not-so-absolutely-need to be by cars: many taxis and personal cars have more society downside than personal ups.
tamaharbor 2y ago
Bicycles are great if you are under 35 years old and it’s not extremely cold or raining.
- tim333 2y ago
  As an older cyclist, ebikes are good.
TowerTall 2y ago
Copenhagen, Denmark, started doing this maybe 20 years ago. Today there are very few cars in the center of town and very few car parking spots. The few there are is super expensive and hard to get.
histories 2y ago
Berlin is already very walkable, but I love the proposition to close the whole inside of the Ring to cars: https://volksentscheid-berlin-autofrei.de/ https://volksentscheid-berlin-autofrei.de/ One can only only hope, but I have my doubts it will ever happen
euroderf 2y ago
No pointers to a map showing these 100 streets ? So that one might get a sense of how aggressive the plan is ?

90 points by madeofpalk 2y ago

knorker 2y ago

Not just cyclists, of course, but also pedestrians and people living there.

zuminator 2y ago
I know it's completely illusory considering the vastly different fatality rate, but as a pedestrian I often feel more at risk dodging cyclists, who completely disregard traffic signals, ride on sidewalks, and make frequently unpredictable movements, than cars, which follow traffic signals 95% of the time, don't generally operate on sidewalks, and tend to be more predictable, although the results can be catastrophically worse when they are negligently operated. The number of fatalities caused by cyclists is very small, but still non-zero. Here's some stats for New York City: > In 2022 (the last full year for which there is data), three pedestrians were killed by cyclists, while 131 pedestrians and cyclists were killed by car and truck drivers. In that same year, 313 pedestrians were injured by cyclists, while 13,190 cyclists and pedestrians were injured by car and truck drivers.[0] I've also seen numbers that there are about 600K cycling "trips" taken each day in NYC[1], versus 4 million cars per day driving in or through the city[2]. While those stats aren't measuring exactly the same thing, it appears that there's basically a 10x order of magnitude difference between the two forms of transportation. With that in mind, looking at the previous fatality numbers, bikes are still admittedly 4-5x safer than cars given equal use. Even so, if we managed to get rid of 80-90% of motor vehicles, we would reach a point where in raw numbers people would be more likely to be injured or killed by bicycles than cars. At that point, I wonder if insurance would be required? [0] https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/16/senior-struck-by-citi-bike-has-died https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/16/senior-struck-by-citi... [1] https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/cyclinginthecity.shtml https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/cyclinginthecit... [2] https://www.nydailynews.com/2019/03/21/why-not-charge-cars-to-enter-all-new-york-city-streets-a-bigger-congestion-pricing-idea/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2019/03/21/why-not-charge-cars-t...
- knorker 2y ago
  All true. But one should also consider the cyclist's view, which is that once the cars are gone, people walk wherever and however they want, bike lane or not. That's not to say that "it's their own fault for getting hit", of course. The proper comparison should be cars there vs no cars there. Once the cars are gone everything changes. No longer do bikes need to swerve around cars. Suddenly there's room for them. So that could reduce the risk of them hitting a pedestrian. Very often a car can block an entire intersection, because they gambled that they'd get through, but then got stuck. A bike will never block things like that. And I'd wager those cases are much more dangerous for all kinds of accidents. The car may be blocking visibility, so that the cyclist and the pedestrian can no longer see each other. But my comment was actually not about safety. It was about quality of life. It just happens that it ALSO improves safety.
  - hooverd 2y ago
    Cyclists can never be at fault, they can only be faulted. It's always the responsibility of drivers, transit, pedestrians to watch out. If you are a cyclist, you have the divine right to scream obscenities at anyone who dares interrupt your path. Although, if two cyclists collide in an intersection, that's the unstoppable force vs immovable object scenario of assigning blame. I am a bike commuter, but guys like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFimQobFGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFimQobFGo) give us a bad reputation.
    - knorker 2y ago
      I do see many cyclists blatantly violating traffic rules. But I'm not even sure cyclists are more prone to do so than drivers. Stand at an intersection and count how many times light turning red does not have a car sneak right after. Or stop with half the car over the stop line. Or motorcycles being in front, in the bike-only area. Or drivers who treat bike lanes as "oh I'll just stop here 10 minutes, who cares?". My experience with cycling in cities is that you quickly discover that basically nobody obeys any traffic rules. Cyclists are just the ones doing it the most blatantly, because honestly when they do it it's not actually that unsafe.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

TheChaplain 2y ago

I'd love to have a bicycle, but battery powered angle grinders are too cheap.

PreInternet01 2y ago
Also cheap: bike insurance, with "we'll drop your new bike within 1hr of you reporting the theft" SLAs. At least, where I live... (and where my last bike was stolen, like, over a decade ago).
latentcall 2y ago
When I was in Amsterdam it seemed most people had cheap beater bikes for that very reason. If someone had a nicer bike they’d bring it into their flat.
- bradlys 2y ago
  Doesn’t really help if you’re going out to places and there’s nowhere to bring your bike into. E.g. a restaurant.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    I have been spending a few days in another french city and seen some bikes stored at the back of some restaurants, next to the toilets. Sure it can t be applied to all restaurants but cyclists can choose their place of choice based on how cycling friendly they are.
- milkytron 2y ago
  I do this in Denver, where bike theft is supposedly rampant. Never had an issue, and I live in one of the worse areas and will leave my bike parked and unattended for hours at a time. I also sticker bombed one of my bikes so that if someone were to steal it, it would be very easily identifiable.
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago

model-15-DAV 2y ago

Other major cities must start making significant headway in this direction. As a New Yorker, I am very interested in getting rid of all cars in NYC. NYC (Specifically, Governor Hochul) has "indefinitely paused" the rollout of a new congestion pricing system for cars in Manhattan, which was a step in the right direction perhaps, but certainly not a solution by any means. Following Paris' lead and removing parking spaces, streets, and improving more sustainable transit is the only way forward if we want to start mitigating climate instability. NYC I feel is one of the few (if only!) cities in America that has the ability to get rid of all private cars within 10 years. We could also become a cyclists' paradise! We need to give the politicians a mandate to accomplish this or they will flail about as always until we all get swallowed up by a tsunami or something.

mtalantikite 2y ago
I'm really bummed that they canceled congestion pricing. We almost did the right thing for the city and the planet, and of course at the last minute some politicians have to go and fuck it up. They're really the worst.
- lnxg33k1 2y ago
  I also am against policies that only allow rich to do stuff, annoyed by this idea that rich can always buy their way out of things, if there’s a problem with cars then just ban it for all
  - Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago
    Ironically, its the rich who mostly likely put the pressure on to kill this bill.
  - mtalantikite 2y ago
    I wouldn’t be opposed to making tolls and fines income based, like some Nordic countries. I once was finishing up eating at Astro diner (iirc) on 55th and 6th and some guy in a lambo double parked across the street on 6th, blocking traffic, and just left it there. Cops came pretty quickly and were ticketing it, but there’s no way the person driving a $400k car cares about a $100 ticket. When we walked out they were still trying to figure out what to do, as they weren’t even sure a tow company would come to take it.

PreInternet01 2y ago

Well, as an Amsterdam resident, I would not go as far as to describe Paris as a cyclist's paradise, but the recent pedestrian/cycle-friendly road repurposing has definitely improved the city, pretty much for everyone, as far as I can tell. Now, let's just hope the local cyclists don't adopt the same combative attitude as, say, those in Amsterdam, or the many, many remaining motorists on La Periferie...

Fradow 2y ago
While I have not cycled in Amsterdam, as a Parisian cyclist I can confirm. Paris is currently overwhelmingly better than what's in most other big cities, but still far away from being as good as the Netherlands infrastructures. There are still a lot of oddities, insufficient infrastructure, and cycling no-man's land. But yes, it has overall made things better for everyone, even for the remaining motorists: as reduced demand have kicked in, the remaining motorists (as far as my observations go) experience less traffic. Of course, there is a LOT less cars now. Though now, bicycle lane jams are actually happening ... Which is a good problem to have I guess.
prmoustache 2y ago
> Now, let's just hope the local cyclists don't adopt the same combative attitude as, say, those in Amsterdam, or the many, many remaining motorists on La Periferie... The combative attitude exists regardless of the vehicles. Heck even pedestrians have similar attitudes in busy places.

datavirtue 2y ago

This is starting up in US cities as well.

dawnerd 2y ago
One nearest me trying but they are more interested in giving the road and sidewalks to bar owners as an extension of their business. Not walking just a couple tables like you see everywhere. During Covid they let them build pretty large outdoor structures right into the road. Naturally all of the units are owned by a single corporation, which of course is pushing for it.
gnulinux 2y ago
It's a very slow progress. Boston has been making tons and tons of progress over the last few years that impressed me but any benefit public derived from increasing bike lanes, safer bike lanes etc were essentially undone by the absolute unspeakable clusterfuck public transportation became (frequent subway closures due to maintenance, practically unusable bus service due to disgusting amount of traffic, no investment etc...). I am hopeful things will improve steadily and Boston will be a European-lite city in USA in the next decade or so, but I might be too optimistic. It's relatively practical to bike in NYC and Philadelphia as well. I personally enjoy biking in NYC but many New Yorkers complain about safety, which makes sense given how chaotic and aggressive NYC traffic is, you do not want to be a meat pie on the road. We have tons of more progress to do, not enough investment into this because 99% of Americans who don't live inside a major non-driving big city don't give a shit about non-car transportation.

downvotetruth 2y ago

[flagged]

com 2y ago
Amsterdammer here. Totally doable, helps if the hills aren’t too steep. Powered vehicles do come and go where I am (street cleaning etc) and it’s possible for planned things like house moves or demolitions. I imagine Paris will do similar stuff.
- downvotetruth 2y ago
  What about the disabled / wheel chair bound? Is there an exception for them too? That is a great way to game the system. Hire "disabled" delivery drivers.
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    https://wheelchairtravel.org/amsterdam/sidewalks/ https://wheelchairtravel.org/amsterdam/sidewalks/ https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/public-transportation https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/publ... https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/disabled-parking-in-amsterdam https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/travel-stay/accessibility/disa... https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/transport-disability/parking-card-disabilities-people/netherlands/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/transport-disab... https://old.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/111bmca/disabled_access_in_amsterdam/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/comments/111bmca/disabled...
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      Tl;dr: Amsterdam is flat, so it's manageable.
      - toomuchtodo 2y ago
        Where would it be substantially challenging? SF comes to mind, but where else?

throwaway22032 2y ago

I like cycling but I think that removing vehicles entirely from cities is silly. It might be possible but it's not going to be actually better. I'm imagining strapping 100kg+ of toolboxes to the front of my electric cargo bike. It theoretically is possible. But if someone walks out in front of that it's going to be ugly. The braking systems are nowhere near as good as a car's. If it rains it'll be miserable, I'd put up my rates significantly to compensate and a lot of people would rather just exit the market. It feels like once you actually account for real things that need to happen like vans carting building materials, you're back where you started except that now everyone needs a license to do the same things they did before in their "personal" vehicles. If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really.

itishappy 2y ago
> If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really. An engine moving thousands of pounds of cargo is a lot more efficient than an engine moving move two hundred pounds of flesh.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  Also lorries and delivery vans use can be limited to specific time window. That is what actually happen in historic city centers that are closed to traffic in many european cities: delivery vehicles can still deliver goods at specific time schedules in the morning when the streets are less busy with pedestrians and they have to do so at low speed.
Clamchop 2y ago
> If you still have lorries and vans and buses then it feels like a lot of the safety and emission arguments fall apart really. Disagree strongly. Special access sharply reduces the number of vehicles, of course, but it also changes the natures of the people driving them. A larger proportion will be professionally-employed drivers and moving through a pedestrian-only area that lacks a defined right of way or traffic devices is going to compel most drivers to move at a creeping pace. Traffic citations are more likely under these circumstances as well. Buses and trams (there's little practical difference when the bus right of way might as well be rails) are unlikely to be operated by aggressive, inattentive, inexperienced, or inebriated drivers, and they're more predictable. On emissions, there are reductions, first because fewer drivers overall, fewer low-occupancy vehicles with no cargo, and then second order effects on car ownership and miles driven for nearby communities.

indoordin0saur 2y ago

Walking and biking around Paris always seemed stressful with the narrow sidewalks, hectic traffic, and mopeds going the wrong way up sidewalks. Maybe it has changed, I was last there in 2022, but if so this must have been a dramatic change.

olivierduval 2y ago

Let's be clear: this article is at best ill-informed or completly partial. For examples: > the city voted to triple parking charges for the biggest, most polluting cars Mmmm... not really. Participation was 5,68% of people living in Paris (only! without any consideration for the suburb). And the Mayor said first that only "outsider" would be taxed... and changed her mind after the vote. The Anne Hidalgo's plan seem to turn Paris into some kind of Disneyland Park. Would you spend your life in such a park? Actually, even Parisian are less and less fond of this "greenification" of Paris because it causes more and more problems for them too (OK, they don't give a shit if it makes problem for suburbs people working in Paris... but now it starts to impact them too) Companies are leaving Paris (too expensive) and people are thinking twice before accepting a job offer inside Paris because of transportation. Actually, the situation is so bad that public transportation are asking since month to people and companies to work remotly during the Olympics because... well... it will be a real nightmare. And not everybody will have a bicyle So, watch what you're wishing for. It's nice to be able to use bicyle from time to time when you want... but it's a bit different to have transportation problems because cars that absolutly must cross Paris (taxis, ambulance, people living there, truck that recharge shops...) are all stacked up in less and less street to develop cycling [Edit] For the record, I live in Paris...

aziaziazi 2y ago
> if it makes problem for suburbs people working in Paris I live in suburb and cycle everyday to Paris inner center for work. I see every year more and more cyclist riding the new infrastructures, but the road are as bloated in their jam as they always have been. > cars that absolutly must cross Paris The point is precisely that most of the transit does not-so-absolutely-need to be by cars: many taxis and personal cars have more society downside than personal ups.

tamaharbor 2y ago

Bicycles are great if you are under 35 years old and it’s not extremely cold or raining.

tim333 2y ago
As an older cyclist, ebikes are good.

TowerTall 2y ago

Copenhagen, Denmark, started doing this maybe 20 years ago. Today there are very few cars in the center of town and very few car parking spots. The few there are is super expensive and hard to get.

histories 2y ago

Berlin is already very walkable, but I love the proposition to close the whole inside of the Ring to cars: https://volksentscheid-berlin-autofrei.de/ https://volksentscheid-berlin-autofrei.de/ One can only only hope, but I have my doubts it will ever happen

euroderf 2y ago

No pointers to a map showing these 100 streets ? So that one might get a sense of how aggressive the plan is ?