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Bike share: Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city

Bike share: Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city - Beehaw

> I had read all the stories. I had even written a few myself. In just five years, Paris’s cycling modal share has doubled, from 5 percent of all trips in 2020 to 11 percent in 2025. That’s mostly thanks to a total of 870 miles of bike lanes, about half of them installed over the past decade. But now that I’m here, I feel like it’s my duty to tell you the transformation that’s occurred is even more dramatic than described. Since I’ve biked all around Paris for a total of three full days — which clearly makes me an expert — I can say this with confidence: Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city. > > And here’s my extremely hot take: biking in Paris might be even more convenient than walking. > > That’s saying a lot coming from me, a professional Walker™.

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TehPers 1d ago

Just wait until the author visits the Netherlands!

It’s awesome seeing cities shift towards being more bike friendly. Driving sucks. It’s dangerous, slow, and cars take up so much space that you inevitably end up with congestion. If more of the US were friendly to other transportation methods, I think we’d see cities become significantly safer to live in.

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Hanrahan 2h ago

Just wait until the author visits the Netherlands!

i took the author to mean the remarkable thing was about the pivoting from a car centric shitfest to cycling, not that it was better than say Utrecht. As she points out most cities build a little cycling infra , it’s mostly tokenism and nearly no one or only the hardcore uses it. Car drivers then say “see, no one cycles in our city” and feel vindicated in their stupidity and it never gets better from there.

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mrnobody 1h ago

This would be VERY applicable to several cities, sure, but most big cities don’t house everybody. Chicago gets busy because people commute into the city for work, and I’m sorry but I’m not biking 15-20 miles each way for a job. For those who live downtown or within walking distance, also a great option. The sidewalks are more than accommodating as are many streets. Honestly, it would be cool to convert some of the narrower streets to bike or pedestrian only.

Also, now a huge chunk live in rural America which is definitely not walkable or ridable. But I know outside the city(s), many towns have their own parks or forest preserve type spaces where is nice to exercise there. But when several states are there size of European countries, it puts some of that into perspective. Illinois has numerous “big(ish) cities” separated by 100s of miles. Same goes for Indiana, OH, MO, TN, KY, etc.

As much as it would be awesome to be less dependent, it’s just not viable in most places.

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Fluffy Kitty Cat 48m ago

What you would do is you would take your bike on the train. In theory any Ada accessible transit system can support this and many explicitly go out of their way to encourage the synergy. Some don’t and that should be something we try to fix but you don’t ride a bike 15 mi, you ride a bike 1 mi, get on a train, get off the train and ride 2 mi. Or maybe you don’t even need to ride that far if you’re lucky