4 ms·

How Paris swapped cars for bikes – and transformed its streets

53 points by vrganj 7mo ago

zemike 7mo ago
As time goes by, people will feel like these changes are more and more what makes Paris great. It will be similar to how progress happened for Amsterdam and other cities. A slow conscious fight against car centric infrastructure, it’s not magic, it’s slow steady progress.
- Zopieux 7mo ago
  Locals already know and vote accordingly. Unfortunately it is considered "woke" and left-brained to use alternatives to cars, therefore billionaire-owned media (i.e. most of French TV and press) tries to hammer that this is somehow bad, making policy progress needlessly slow and difficult.
secretsatan 7mo ago
I’m all for this. The more cars removed, the more pleasant a city becomes. While i don’t live in a car free city, i don’t own or need a car, when i do, i’m a member of a car share and can just pickup a car from my local supermarket, that i can walk to. I live in a very hilly city, while i walk a lot, i know every lift, escalator and sneaky bus or metro to get me up a hill, it’s no joke here, i used to walk 20min to my job, that had a 200m height difference, but there are paths everywhere. And the city is working more on greenspaces, little urban oasis’s with a fountain or some trees to provide places to cool down as every year gets hotter
ChrisArchitect 7mo ago
Related: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47466697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47466697
throw-the-towel 7mo ago
I just wish somebody would teach the damn cyclists to stop at red lights. As of now, they seem absolutely incapable of doing this, and charge ahead at full speed regardless. It's a miracle there's not more injuries.
- Glawen 7mo ago
  When you wait for green you start at the same time as cars. Cars seem incapable of staying behind a cyclist and feel the need to overtake them at all costs. It feel much safer as a cyclist to start at red light when there is noone, you then have a head start with cars
- vrganj 7mo ago
  This is an infrastructure engineering problem, not a moral one. The Netherlands solves this with Dutch Roundabouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqTc_wx5EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqTc_wx5EU
  - lbreakjai 7mo ago
    Easily my least favourite piece of infrastructure. The one on the video is alright because you have a full car's length between the road and the cycle path, so you are at a full perpendicular with good visibility over the bikes. In plenty of other places, the space is much smaller, which puts the bike traffic almost directly in your blind spot as you cross. For example, here: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3911559,4.6253401,3a,75y,110.46h,69.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1suX9VtcbHHB5t9glHsNcjew!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D20.484955728319036%26panoid%3DuX9VtcbHHB5t9glHsNcjew%26yaw%3D110.45783349412292!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQwMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3911559,4.6253401,3a,75y,110... It's really hard to anticipate as you may not have full unobstructed visibility as you drive around, especially since cyclists can come quite fast. https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-roundabout-design-for-cyclists.html https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-round...
    - 7mo ago

53 points by vrganj 7mo ago

As time goes by, people will feel like these changes are more and more what makes Paris great. It will be similar to how progress happened for Amsterdam and other cities. A slow conscious fight against car centric infrastructure, it’s not magic, it’s slow steady progress.

Zopieux 7mo ago
Locals already know and vote accordingly. Unfortunately it is considered "woke" and left-brained to use alternatives to cars, therefore billionaire-owned media (i.e. most of French TV and press) tries to hammer that this is somehow bad, making policy progress needlessly slow and difficult.

secretsatan 7mo ago

I’m all for this. The more cars removed, the more pleasant a city becomes. While i don’t live in a car free city, i don’t own or need a car, when i do, i’m a member of a car share and can just pickup a car from my local supermarket, that i can walk to. I live in a very hilly city, while i walk a lot, i know every lift, escalator and sneaky bus or metro to get me up a hill, it’s no joke here, i used to walk 20min to my job, that had a 200m height difference, but there are paths everywhere. And the city is working more on greenspaces, little urban oasis’s with a fountain or some trees to provide places to cool down as every year gets hotter

ChrisArchitect 7mo ago

Related: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47466697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47466697

throw-the-towel 7mo ago

I just wish somebody would teach the damn cyclists to stop at red lights. As of now, they seem absolutely incapable of doing this, and charge ahead at full speed regardless. It's a miracle there's not more injuries.

Glawen 7mo ago
When you wait for green you start at the same time as cars. Cars seem incapable of staying behind a cyclist and feel the need to overtake them at all costs. It feel much safer as a cyclist to start at red light when there is noone, you then have a head start with cars
vrganj 7mo ago
This is an infrastructure engineering problem, not a moral one. The Netherlands solves this with Dutch Roundabouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqTc_wx5EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqTc_wx5EU
- lbreakjai 7mo ago
  Easily my least favourite piece of infrastructure. The one on the video is alright because you have a full car's length between the road and the cycle path, so you are at a full perpendicular with good visibility over the bikes. In plenty of other places, the space is much smaller, which puts the bike traffic almost directly in your blind spot as you cross. For example, here: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3911559,4.6253401,3a,75y,110.46h,69.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1suX9VtcbHHB5t9glHsNcjew!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D20.484955728319036%26panoid%3DuX9VtcbHHB5t9glHsNcjew%26yaw%3D110.45783349412292!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQwMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3911559,4.6253401,3a,75y,110... It's really hard to anticipate as you may not have full unobstructed visibility as you drive around, especially since cyclists can come quite fast. https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-roundabout-design-for-cyclists.html https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-round...
  - 7mo ago