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To read the full document [in French], click below: Technical break no. 2 - The recent rise of the bicycle in Paris: how to manage large flows of cyclists? |
Cycling in Paris had already increased by a factor of 2.5 in almost twenty years since the 2000s. But since 2018, the bicycle seems to have taken off, as its use has increased by a factor of 2 in less than four years!
It is useful to go back several decades in the history of cycling in Paris to better identify how this boom came about. A retrospective analysis highlights several elements that have contributed to this acceleration, such as: the development of a network with a hierarchical structure, increasingly high-quality facilities and the deployment of bicycle services. In order to design these strategies, a vast ecosystem of competent and mobilised players in the public, private and voluntary sectors has been formed and has been able to seize the opportunities created by the crises. Indeed, major episodes of public transport strikes have put Parisian mobility to the test, a test in which the bicycle and micro-mobilities have distinguished themselves by enabling people to reach their destinations despite everything. These light individual modes were allies in building resilience into the transport system.
A closer look at the cases of Rue Rivoli and Place de la Bastille provides several useful lessons:
- Test facilities allow for rapid development of the network at low cost. They are particularly interesting for creating connections that did not exist at all in the initial state;
- By remaining fairly easily malleable, these facilities can be adjusted to suit the demand they generate: this ensures that they are not undersized and the consequence of increased cycle flows around the perimeter can be observed and any accompanying measures taken;
- The design of intersections should be considered early in the feasibility studies;
- In general, the design of infrastructure should anticipate the "loading" and correspond to the future flows targeted.
While the example of Paris is instructive on how to encourage the development of cycling, it must be recognised that this process spans over several decades. In view of the current climate challenges, cities can accelerate this process, provided that they act in parallel on three axes of progress:
1 - the network and its infrastructures;
2 - the services giving access to vehicles and skills
3 - the development of current uses.
It is a question of implementing measures that are simple enough to be extended to the whole city and of more localised flagship measures to raise the level of quality of facilities. The opportunity cities have today is to benefit from lessons on how to generate high levels of cycling flows while already having feedback on how to manage them when cycling is high.