Each morning, as I cycle to my office along Paris’s new bike paths, my only aim is survival. In my decades here, I have absorbed the uniquely Parisian mix of officiousness and rule-breaking: one moment I’ll be yelling self-righteously at a truck chilling on the bike path, and the next I run a red light. In Paris, other cyclists get angry if you block them by stopping for red.
The city’s transition away from the car, though fantastically chaotic, has become a global role model. Under mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris was “the most influential city in the world”, says Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian. Parisian car traffic fell by more than half between 2002 and 2023, while cycle lanes expanded sixfold. Bikes now make more than twice as many journeys as cars. Hidalgo, stepping down after 12 years, exulted: “The bike beat the car.”
This Sunday and next, Paris elects a new mayor. The election is in part a referendum on cars. The frontrunners are Emmanuel Grégoire of the left, who follows Hidalgo’s line even though she seems to dislike him, and car-friendly rightwinger Rachida Dati. So what are the lessons from the Parisian revolution?