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Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

cnn.com

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Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#91

Post by prpl »

nchagnet wrote: post #85
jfengel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a nice day it's fantastic to be out, but Paris can be cold and rainy. They really need to have a plan for those days, too. Paris Metro is pretty nice, and reaches most of the car free area. But I'm not sure if it can handle all of the cyclists if they're all trying to avoid a déluge.

I live in the Netherlands where the weather is arguably tougher than in Paris (rain, cold and wind for large portion of the year) yet everyone bikes year in year out. And not just young active people, it's a habit found across all age groups, parents bike their children to school (or with them if old enough, etc.) All that to say I wouldn't worry too much about the feasibility issue, it's really more of a mindset to…

In amsterdam, few people wear modern/synthetic rain coats as well. Just riding around in the rain with what I assume must be waxed duck out something

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#92

Post by IneffablePigeon »

jfengel wrote: post #80
frnx wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new large cycling strips that appeared in the last 5-6 years are so good. At commute time there are frequently jammed with /cyclists/, but let's face it it's miles better than being stuck in a car. I shudder to think about the alternative where each cyclist was instead alone in a small car, this wouldn't even fit on the roads.

On a nice day it's fantastic to be out, but Paris can be cold and rainy. They really need to have a plan for those days, too. Paris Metro is pretty nice, and reaches most of the car free area. But I'm not sure if it can handle all of the cyclists if they're all trying to avoid a déluge.

This “nobody cycles in bad weather” is a tired myth. Yes, there’s some truth in it but cycling numbers past the traffic counters in my city in the UK (very similar climate) dip by 10-30% in winter months, and the higher end of those is mostly leisure routes not commuting ones. The Netherlands has a lot of rain and much more cycling than most other places.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#93

Post by efavdb »

kibwen wrote: post #11
lefrenchy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

One of the major problems with cars is the terrible lack of density. Per-occupant, a car occupies more space on the roadway than any other form of passenger transport. And as cars get larger, that lack of density gets even worse. There's only so much space on the road, so something has to give.

When I look at traffic in my city, I rarely see it caused by full packing. Rather throughout seems to be the issue.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#94

Post by dadoum »

rapht wrote: post #73

This article omits so many negatives from the "cyclist's paradise" vision of Hidalgo's 2 terms that I don't know where to start. Families are the first casualties: the Paris metro is nowhere near accessible to strollers except if you are willing to go to the chiropractor after each week end, and using your car - hell, even parking your family car - is a no go as soon as there is some kind of hipster sports event or j…

About the accessibility issue in the Paris metro: this can be mitigated by using the buses (that's not the best experience but it works fine), and in some parts of Paris (in my experience, east and suburbs) people usually quickly help you in the stairs with your stroller (it's not convenient or comfortable to rely on others but in practice it seems to work). Anyway this is not like Paris mayor has any power on that, the transport authority though announced a few years ago that the main priority after the Grand Paris Express will be making the historical Paris network accessible. And fortunately after two years hopefully your kid can walk and you can carry it without a stroller.

> Local parks and generally streets are so dirty that you have to wash your children from head to toe as soon as they have set foot outside.

Maybe if it is a newborn, and if you don't bring the stroller nor any clothes, on rainy days it can be that bad. Don't get me wrong, Paris is not a clean city, there are empty nitrogen tanks, puffs and cigarettes lying on the ground pretty much in every arrondissement, but syringes, even on the colline du crack I can hardly remember having seen even one (but it is very dirty there! with packaging, paper, cardboard, bottles).

I still think there should be a higher priority on sanitation but I also think you are exaggerating a bit.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#95

Post by wiether »

delichon wrote: post #58
wiether wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A city with less cars is a net positive for mobility impaired people. It frees space for people (wider sidewalks...), reduce the risks of navigating the streets, and for the ones that have to use a car, there's less traffic and less people stealing dedicated parking spots. Less cars also means less mobility impaired people. Cars create them through crashes and a lifetime of sedentariness. Finally, it should be noted…

> they are not mobility impaired themselves and don't actually care about them. That's a baseless and false slur. My first thought was that visiting Paris would be difficult because of all of the walking. I fall in the large gap between disabled and fit. On the one hand I would benefit from more walking, on the other I would not get much enjoyment out of a city that way, and would tend to drive far to services where…

Maybe it's my European bias talking, but "visiting a city" with a car seems like the worst idea possible.

Basically a city is either small enough to be crossed walking, or big enough to have public transportation.

And after walking or cycling, public transportation is the best way to visit the city. In Paris, there's bus stops or metro (subway) stations everywhere. A bus or metro puts the passenger at a higher level than walkers/cyclists/car passengers and with huge windows, allowing to enjoy a unique view of the city.

The view of the Eiffel Tower you get when crossing the Seine on the Bir-Hakeim bridge is an experience that can ONLY be enjoyed by riding the metro. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cqIJVzkLD4c

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#96

Post by rsynnott »

skeletal88 wrote: post #25
iamkonstantin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s no easy task to reform a city away from being car-centric. In my home town of Ghent (in Belgium), we’ve had several iterations of a traffic plan that gradually reduces the number of parking spaces, rises taxes and car related costs, makes streets one way or deprioritises cars (e.g. a car doesn’t have priority over a bike anymore) etc. It’s not easy but the city today is a lot more liveable than it was wh…

But then public transport has to improve also. You cant make owning a car impossible without offering alternatives.

Generally, restrictions on cars make public transport better automatically, as they make buses work better.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#97

Post by dfxm12 »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #2

This article has such a weird framing. It keeps repeating how the cleaner air is so good for tourists. But tourists visiting Paris for a week don’t get the majority of the benefit from cleaner air. The Parisian residents living there throughout the year do. Maybe because it’s CNN, an American outlet, they’re focused on the “tourist”, but these benefits have mostly accrued to Parisians. Also, the 4% increase in traffi…

Cleaner air is still good for tourists & the article is part of the Travel section of this publication.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#98

Post by rsynnott »

whatever1 wrote: post #24

Of course you can reduce highways and infrastructure and reduce traffic. But you also choked access to the city. And no public transportation does not fix the problem. It helps a bit, but at the end of the day biggest part of far commuters are gradually cut off. If decentralization is the target, then just state it.

I would assume that if you’re commuting to Paris from far away, the train is generally _quicker_, tbh. AIUI the RER is mostly 140km/h quality lines.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#99

Post by mrb »

I live in Paris and bike nearly every day, with my electric bike, or sometimes the city's velib rental bikes, sometimes private rental bikes (Uber, Dott, Voi). I love the drastic push to add more bike lanes, and reduce car lanes. I don't own a car in this city. Don't need one.

Re: Mayor of Paris removed parking spaces, reduced the number of cars

#100

Post by p_j_w »

jfengel wrote: post #80
frnx wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new large cycling strips that appeared in the last 5-6 years are so good. At commute time there are frequently jammed with /cyclists/, but let's face it it's miles better than being stuck in a car. I shudder to think about the alternative where each cyclist was instead alone in a small car, this wouldn't even fit on the roads.

On a nice day it's fantastic to be out, but Paris can be cold and rainy. They really need to have a plan for those days, too. Paris Metro is pretty nice, and reaches most of the car free area. But I'm not sure if it can handle all of the cyclists if they're all trying to avoid a déluge.

This is overblown. I visited Tokyo recently and a friend of mine was constantly riding his bike around in the middle of a cold and snowy winter. He wasn't the only one, either.
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