I had read all the stories. I had even written a few myself. In just five years, Paris’s cycling modal share has doubled, from 5 percent of all trips in 2020 to 11 percent in 2025. That’s mostly thanks to a total of 870 miles of bike lanes, about half of them installed over the past decade. But now that I’m here, I feel like it’s my duty to tell you the transformation that’s occurred is even more dramatic than described. Since I’ve biked all around Paris for a total of three full days — which clearly makes me an expert — I can say this with confidence: Paris has made space for cyclists in a way that I simply have not seen in any other city.
And here’s my extremely hot take: biking in Paris might be even more convenient than walking.
That’s saying a lot coming from me, a professional Walker™.
i took the author to mean the remarkable thing was about the pivoting from a car centric shitfest to cycling, not that it was better than say Utrecht. As she points out most cities build a little cycling infra , it’s mostly tokenism and nearly no one or only the hardcore uses it. Car drivers then say “see, no one cycles in our city” and feel vindicated in their stupidity and it never gets better from there.
Exactly. I guess reading comprehension really is a thing of the past, or maybe people just read headlines now?