Lessons from Paris: The Changing Landscape of Urban Transportation after COVID

Held on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Watch a recording or read a recap below. 

Recap by Claudia Chiappa

On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, the Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) hosted a discussion with municipal officials from the City of Paris to explore how the major urban center has been implementing pedestrian and cyclist friendly programs and infrastructure. From the city’s Department of Transportation and Public Space, Curbside Evolution Project Manager Hervé Levifve, Chief of Cycle Infrastructure and Facilities Charlotte Guth, and Data Project Manager Mélanie Gidel joined the IOC for a discussion moderated by Kris Carter, Co-Chair of the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM).

Paris has approximately 2.2 million inhabitants, but a majority of the residents travel either by public transport or on foot. A movement to promote cycling had been ongoing before the pandemic, and it has only grown over the last year. Levifve, Gidel, and Guth discussed the changes the city has implemented in their transportation system to make it more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.

They are part of an effort to make the city not only more accessible but also more environmentally friendly. Efforts include the presence of a low emissions zone, a ban for most cars in the city center during specified periods, an increase in car sharing services, and a goal to ban diesel by 2024. In particular, over the last year the city has worked to improve facilities for bikes in a series of projects meant to encourage cycling over driving.

Programs to encourage cycling

The department has built more cycling lanes over the last few years, connecting them to one another to facilitate transportation between neighborhoods and across the city. It is working to increase the number of parking spaces for bikes, and Guth explained how the city also has programs that help cyclists repair their bikes. Delivery services via bike are available and more widespread. A vital part of this project also includes communications strategies to promote cycling among residents, such as through events and other initiatives.

Building cycle lanes

“During the covid crisis, we built more than 50 km of pop-up cycle lanes; so, cycle lanes we built almost in one night,” explained Guth. “The result was a big increase in cycling and the number of cyclists in Paris.”

To ensure that residents in the suburbs are included, the cycling plan includes building cycling infrastructure that connect different areas of the city. Data shows that 20 percent of cyclists use bike-sharing systems, and that 25 percent of cyclists either live in the suburbs or travel to the suburbs. This means that adequate cycling infrastructure and bike-sharing systems in the suburbs are necessary.

There is also a focus on children and the elderly, including a plan to transform streets around schools so that they are only accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, there is a movement to make bike lanes safer for everyone, which may make the elderly and children—and their families—more comfortable biking.

Paris, like other major cities, grapples with bike theft. Guth addressed the issue and said the city is trying to implement policies that will protect cyclists, such as funding secure bike parking, including enclosed “bike boxes” where cyclists can safely park their bikes on the street. A drawback to these solutions, though, is that they tend to be expensive.

Parking policy

In a survey of residents to learn their wants and needs, the city learned residents, for the most part, wanted more vegetation, bike parking and lanes, benches, and space for pedestrians. Parking spaces for cars were not a priority.

The City has engaged in an ambitious project that aims to dramatically cut the number of parking spaces on city streets, reducing spaces from 120,000 to 60,000 over the next five years and freeing up the remaining spaces for other purposes.

An element which makes this ambitious project possible in Paris is the presence of underground spaces. Levifve explained that for every space above  ground, there are five underground parking spaces. People, however, tend to park above ground on city streets because it tends to be cheaper than underground parking. To address this, Levifve suggested increasing the price of street parking. “One of the tools could be to use price for public parking in the streets differently,” said Levifve.

While removing parking spaces may negatively affect some car owners, Guth explained it is necessary to give everyone the possibility to bike. Currently, there are just 50 km of cycle lines in the city, but over 1,700 km of streets. This plan is framed in terms of fairness, providing more choices for people to move around the city.

“It’s a really small amount of places taken from cars, but it makes a huge difference for cyclists,” noted Guth.

While business owners may be concerned about a drop-off in business with less car parking spaces, data shows that most purchases are made by pedestrians and limiting street access to cars does not negatively impact sales.  “It’s normal for them to be scared and reluctant to change and fear the consequences of anything changing in the streets,” explained Gidel. “But we have some arguments to reassure them.”

Data strategy & COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected public spaces in urban settings. Guth said that during the health crisis, city officials witnessed how people chose to cycle instead of using public transport.

“I think the first thing that everyone learned is that actually people want to cycle,” said Guth. “Everyone could see that by providing good facilities, people actually want to cycle and can choose to cycle easily. The change was way easier than we all thought.”

In 2018, Paris introduced a municipal data strategy to develop more innovative solutions. The city has been collecting data to promote mobility policies that make the city more pedestrian-friendly, reduce parking spaces, and declutter public spaces. This was useful during the pandemic, as the city partnered with a company to provide location data from phones in order to create a heat map of pedestrian density before and after the COVID-19 lockdown

During the crisis, Gidel noted how the city tried to quickly develop their data collection technique in order to track changes and behaviors. This included deploying more counting sensors, and analyzing video collection from cameras. While data collection is vital, so is data privacy, said Gidel. The systems they currently in use do not collect any personal information and are limited to collecting objects’ shapes. Another element that the city wants to analyze is any changes in air quality, but this requires a long-term analysis since its changes are not immediate.

None of these strategies would be possible without support from political leaders, explained Guth. The support of the Mayor’s office is vital when implementing programs that change and shape the city’s landscape.