Paris aims for 15 per cent modal share for cycling by 2020

Paris aims for cycling to account for 15 per cent of all trips in the city by 2020 and aims to turn some of its underground car parks into massive cycle parking facilities as well as installing a new network of cycle paths. It’s likely to need a significant increase in investment, however.

The proposals are contained in the Mairie de Paris’s forthcoming Plan Vélo, due to be published in December once details have been agreed with all 20 of the city’s arrondissements. Some details were revealed at a meeting at the 11th arrondissement last Tuesday, and have been reported by Le Monde.

An engineer in charge of the project for the French capital’s city hall unveiled proposals including giving over tunnels currently used for car parking to bicycles, starting with one located on the Avenue du Maine in the south of the city.

Other proposals include cycle paths designed to make them clearer to all road users running on some of the city’s major arteries, including the Avenue de la République and the Boulevard St-Michel, as well as the Avenue du Champs-Elysées, although the issue of whether they should run on the carriageway or the pavement, depending on the location, will need to be resolved.

Levels of cycling in Paris are believed to have trebled since 2001, although in 2008 – the year after the Vélib bike-sharing scheme was launched, and the last for which which data are available – modal share stood at 3 per cent, compared to 47 per cent for walking, 33 per cent by public transport, 12 per cent by car and 4 per cent for motorcycles.

The city plans to identify locations where cycle parking is currently over-subscribed or under-utilising, and there are plans to install more spaces at junctions throughout the city, as well as the secure facilities already mentioned.

What is unclear at the moment is how much of a budget will be devoted to fulfil the plan. During the municipal election campaign earlier this year, the green candidate in the municipal elections earlier this year, Christophe Najdovski described the €25 million devoted to cycling from 2008-2014 as “poor.”

Now, as the deputy mayor in charge of transport in the coalition his party formed with the socialists to govern the city, he needs to find the money to pay for that vision.

Cycling campaigners remain sceptical about the city’s plans to boost levels of cycling. One, Kiki Lambert from the group Mieux se déplacer à bicyclette [Better to get around by bike] told Le Monde: “If we really want to get to 15 per cent of cyclists in 2020, we need to make space for them.”

Meanwhile green politician Pierre Japhet, responsible for transport in the 11th arrondissement, said: “It’s more of a transitional plan than a disruptive strategy.”