Paris: The City Of Car Love
I had high bicycle hopes for Paris. I’d heard on the grape vine that Paris was a bicycle city.
I had visions of beautiful Parisians, in flowing fashions, bicycling down boulevards, casually calling Bonjour to each other on their way to the morning market.
Why does Paris have this odd reputation for being so delightful and beautiful and picturesque?
Where is that Paris, because it’s sure not the one I located on the map of France and flew to.
A rare Parisian.
The Paris I landed in is 24 hours of a honking steaming bog of cars and I wouldn’t ride through it if you paid me, nor would anyone else it seems.
Paris boasts a big bicycle share scheme, but I saw no one actually using it, except a few tourists making a dash to the Louvre.
Did I arrive just on the one day of the year everyone chose to drive, or is Paris’ love of bicycles a myth?
Well, I waited a week for the bicycles to appear in Paris, but I waited in vein.
I even went in search of answers, but got few satisfactory ones.
And as for anything worthy of an active bicycle lobby, well I tried to get in contact with Paris Cycle Chic, and only got a reply some days after I’d left town in dismay.
I hate to burst the Parisians bubble, but they do not live in the city of love, they live in a city where everyone is having an elicit affair with their car, while telling the world they are wedded to the bicycle.
Paris, you have a long way to go, and a reality check to take, before anything your Mayor says actually comes to fruition. You’re all smooth talk, and no action.
Nothing we didn’t know about the French already.
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hopfendood Says: January 27, 2013 at 12:58 pm
To be fair, Parisians are fair weather cyclists and they simply think winter is not the “season” for cycling — you’ll find a lot more bicycles in the summer. It can even be hard to find a bike to check out from the bikeshare stations when the weather’s nice. Still, the sheer amount of car traffic is intimidating and in many neighborhoods there’s no way to avoid riding on busy streets… they’re not in the same league as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Berlin when it comes to infrastructure and general attitudes.
Bojun Bjorkman-Chiswell Says: January 28, 2013 at 12:29 am
Thanks for your comment, I appreciate your point. I was in Paris between the 5th and the 13th of Sept,the weather was perfect. If a city is a bicycle city, you see the bicycles all day, every day, any day. Unfortunately, paying lip service to bicycles or only riding on a sunny Sunday arvos does not classify, and nor is it going to turn around one very unlivable city which, good weather or no, is dominated day and night by car traffic.
Rémi Says: January 29, 2013 at 5:46 am
But do you know that the French actually invented the bicycle? hehe
Check this: http://www.bicyclehistory.net/bicycle-inventor/pierre-michaux
Bojun Bjorkman-Chiswell Says: January 31, 2013 at 10:05 am
All the more reason for them to start riding them. Thanks for your contribution.
Dylan Nicholson Says: February 8, 2013 at 10:44 am
Surprised you found that. One of my greatest impressions of Paris (and this was in very early April) was the number of very well dressed/groomed women of all ages on bicycles around the streets, something you almost never see in Australia. And the bicycle share scheme statistically has been one of the most (if not *the* most) successful in the world.
Darren Says: February 11, 2013 at 4:16 am
So you haven’t actually riden a bike in Paris?
Bojun Bjorkman-Chiswell Says: February 11, 2013 at 6:28 am
Would that have changed the number of people riding bicycles?
Bojun Bjorkman-Chiswell Says: February 11, 2013 at 6:32 am
Unfortunately, its not much of an achievement to be “the” most sucessful when most of the other bicycle share schemes are disturbingly unsuccessful. Are we playing for “the” most successful of a bad bunch or are we playing for acutually creating livable cities?
Pierre Says: May 11, 2013 at 11:26 am
Bonjour,
Being a daily Brompton bike commuter in Paris, I definitely agree that the car traffic is a bit agressive, making people sometime hesitate to ride a bike, but it’s actually possible to get use to it and to ride everyday in a safe way.
The bike sharing system is really popular now, and riding a bike has become fashionable gradually over the last years, with fancy bike shop, vintage, fixies, etc…
On elegance, well, you have to consider that a lot of bike are parked outside and beautiful bike disappear quickly. Anyway I might be a bit subjective, but parisienne girls on bikes are so beautiful!
Pierre