Paris Transit Strike Boosts Use Of City’s Major New Cycleways

“Never seen so many people using bikes to get to work in Paris before,” tweeted the editor of English-language French news website The Local on Friday September 13. Ben McPartland’s observation was triggered by the biggest public transit strike in Paris in over a decade.

With all of the city’s trams, urban trains, and Metro underground lines–and two-thirds of the bus network–out of action due to the most coordinated industrial action in the city since 2007 surface transport ground to a halt as Parisians attempted to travel in taxis and private cars. 

City officials recorded 291-kilometers of traffic snarl-ups during Friday morning’s “rush” hour, double the normal level of congestion.

However, there was one form of road transport that was unaffected by the jams and which has recently benefitted from extra investment: bicycling. La Petite Reine–or “little queen,” the affectionate French name for the bicycle–ruled the roads last Friday. 

The city’s Vélib’ bike share bikes were in short supply as were the “dockless” bikes many Parisians say clutter the sidewalks. Electric share scooters also suffer from this bad press, but there were few such complaints on Friday.

Those new to cycling in the city, spurred into two-wheel action thanks to transport unions, would have been surprised by a number of newly opened “express” cycleways. For many months Parisians have been griping over the roadworks caused by the construction of the Réseau Express Vélo, or Bicycle Express Network, but the major new cycleways came into their own on strike day, providing swift and safe urban transport for cyclists and scooter users.

Although 25-kilometers of the new, cross-city express cycleways have opened over the last couple of months the network is far from complete.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo launched her “Bike plan” in 2015 aiming to double to number of cycleways in Paris from 700-kilometers to 1,400-kilometers by 2020. By next year’s spring local elections it’s believed that 1,000-kilometers of cycleways will have been provided in Paris, including a number of the protected cycleways that form the high-profile backbone of the Bicycle Express Network.

A €150 million five-year investment in cycling is part of Hidalgo’s attempt to cut air pollution in the city.

In early September, Christophe Najdovski, the deputy mayor for transport in Paris, applauded the opening of the first sections of the Réseau Express Vélo.

“We can now cycle along the Tuileries Garden thanks to the Réseau Express Vélo,” he tweeted.

“In front of the old house of kings, you will feel now the soul of a little queen.”

Referring to the express cycleway on the Left Bank, he promised cyclists would be overjoyed “thanks to the new tracks along the quays of Montebello, St Michel and the Grands Augustins.”

He added: “With the new express cycleway on Boulevard Vincent Auriol, you can now go safely from the Place d’Italie to the Pont de Bercy. 1.4km of trails to serve you!”

McPartland asked “will Parisians embrace a two wheel future?” 

The editor of Paris-based The Local continued: “The problem is not persuading people living in Paris to ditch Metro [underground] for bikes but to persuade those in suburbs to ditch their cars for Metro/RER [surface urban trains].”

Public transit strikes, such as those in London in 2009, have been found to boost bicycling.

Friday’s strike was coordinated by French transport unions to protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.