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Paris Olympics 2024: Revolutionizing Traffic with Expanded Bike Lanes
Mike Colagrossi
Navigating the bustling bike lanes of Paris can be a wild ride. Cyclists zip along in a constant stream and encounter a flurry of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, each with its own set of rules.
With the Paris Olympics now underway, millions of new riders are experiencing the exciting biking network and seeing why Paris has one of the most advanced cycling infrastructure in the world. Paris has invested years in prioritizing bikes and scooters.
- The city now estimates half a million bike trips in Paris each day, making up 11% of total trips, up from around 5% in 2019.
- The city has paid residents up to $4,000 to replace their car with a bike.
- Tripled parking fees for massive SUVs and even banning cars in the city center.
Olympic City Mobility: The city has made major investments in improving cycling infrastructure to increase safety and comfort for bike commuters. For the olympics, they installed an additional 37 miles (60 km) of bike lanes to connect Olympic sites. These new bike lanes are painted pink to help tourists and residents find their way to different events.
- They’ve also installed 10,000 new bike racks for riders so they can secure and lock their bikes.
- Lime, a top e-bike and e-scooter service, has invested over 6 million euros in Paris ahead of the Olympics.
Lime’s head of Global Policy Shari Shapiro was impressed saying,, “This is their signature moment; the whole world’s eyes are going to be on them. And they took this opportunity to say, ‘This is going to be a bikeable event.’”
New Mobility Trend: Locally dubbed “olympistes,” blending “Olympics” and the French word for “track,” Paris’s big “olympiste” moment stems from years of dedication. Thanks to a $290 million plan, transportation officials have been pushing to make the city 100% bikeable by 2024. The upcoming Summer Games provided the perfect motivation to expedite this transformation and an opportunity to promote biking globally.