Paris has plans to become one of the most bike-friendly cities in Europe

Paris is investing 250 million EUR into significant upgrades of its bicycle network as part of ‘Plan Velo: Act 2’. The city will be building 180 kilometres of new permanent segregated bike lanes and thousands of new bicycle parking spots between now and 2026.

Paris already has more than 1,000 kilometres of cycle paths including around 52km of “coronapistes” that were temporarily introduced during the pandemic. The city’s new Bike Plan intends to make these permanent and add another 130km of safe paths to encourage people to cycle in the city.

The aim is to make it possible to cycle safely from one end of Paris to the other. The Plan pays particular attention to bike lanes and infrastructure that improves the connections between peripheral areas and the city to boost integration across the metropolitan areas. Places where cyclists are put in danger by crossing busy roads, like multilane junctions in the city gates, and key entry points into the city centre will also be made more secure.

Cycling is constantly increasing its popularity in the French capital, intensified by the spike in active travel during the pandemic. Indeed, today Paris sees almost one million bike journeys daily. For this reason, the Plan also addresses some of the growing issues that can come along with this rapid shift. As well as infrastructure improvements, the city wants to put pedestrian safety first, increasing police controls in riders and disseminating a “street code” for all street users. The Plan acknowledges the need to develop clearer separations between rider and pedestrian space to foster a more orderly cycling culture.

In addition, the city also reported that in 2020 bicycle thefts increased by 7%, and around 80% of people who don’t want to cycle say fear of their bike being stolen is their number one reason. For that reason, the new Plan is more than tripling its secure cycle parking by adding 30,000 new metal arches — 1,000 of them dedicated to cargo bikes — as well as 50,000 secure, monitored spaces. Another 50,000 parking spots will be added in private spaces such as parking structures or co-housing projects.

David Belliard, Deputy Mayor in charge of urban transformation, tweeted: 'This cycling plan is one of the essential pillars of ecological and social transformation that we are leading in Paris.'