'As Bikers Throng the Streets, "It's Like Paris Is in Anarchy"'
10-03-21, 12:57 AM
#1
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'As Bikers Throng the Streets, "It's Like Paris Is in Anarchy"'
On a recent afternoon, the Rue de Rivoli looked like this: Cyclists blowing through red lights in two directions. Delivery bike riders fixating on their cellphones. Electric scooters careening across lanes. Jaywalkers and nervous pedestrians scrambling as if in a video game.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is campaigning for the French presidency, has been burnishing her credentials as an ecologically minded Socialist candidate. She has earned admirers and enemies alike with a bold program to transform greater Paris into the world's leading environmentally sustainable metropolis, reclaiming vast swaths of the city from cars for parks, pedestrians and a Copenhagen-style cycling revolution.
She has made highways along the Seine car-free and last year, during coronavirus lockdowns, oversaw the creation of over 100 miles of new bike paths.
A million people in a metropolis of 10 million are now pedaling daily. And Paris now ranks among the world's top 10 cycling cities,
A Critical Mass guy in Paris chatted me up (wanted to practice English) 20 years ago - they were going to have a ride the next day
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10-03-21, 02:36 AM
#2
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I wish more cities would do likewise.
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10-03-21, 11:04 AM
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/w...es-france.html - You can right-click on the URI, save a copy, read it.
The article several times carelessly referred to problems and issues with electric scooter use as if it was one and the same as bicycle use.
The article was also careless with its use of hyperbolic and emotional rhetoric bemoaning the alleged "Anarchy on the Streets," and "The mayhem on Rue de Rivoli":
“I’m afraid of being crushed,” said Paul Michel Casabelle, 44, a superintendent at the Maison de Danemark, a Danish cultural institute.
On a recent Sunday, Ingrid Juratowitch had to talk her daughter Saskia safely across bike lanes near the Saint Paul metro station while she held her two other young daughters at a safe distance from the street.
“Be careful, there are bikes coming from the left and right,” said Ms. Juratowitch, who has lived in Paris for 14 years. She is increasingly reluctant to let her children walk to school for fear of reckless riders. “There’s another one coming. OK, now you can go!”
“Be careful, there are bikes coming from the left and right,” said Ms. Juratowitch, who has lived in Paris for 14 years. She is increasingly reluctant to let her children walk to school for fear of reckless riders. “There’s another one coming. OK, now you can go!”
Sarah Famery, a 20-year resident of the Marais neighborhood, braced for the tumult. She looked left, then right, then left and right again before venturing into a crosswalk, only to break into a rant-laden sprint as two cyclists came within inches of grazing her.
“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”
“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”
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10-23-21, 10:01 AM
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People tend to forget that it took decades for Netherlands to get where it is.
Take time.
Take time.
10-23-21, 01:12 PM
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10-23-21, 07:01 PM
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10-24-21, 05:49 AM
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Mrs. Goreman is 100% French and relates that, in the past, it took 10 years to get motorists to coexist with bikes. However, using national recognition campaigns was well worth this step. Now it is not only acceptable to ride together in the cities, but bikes are expected to come to the front of the line and sit between the stop bar and crosswalk. She is telling me that the most important part of the conversation is the willingness of the French people to be accepting of others. Something that is sorely down-played in our American society. Even though "we" like to advertise otherwise.
Nothing wrong with taking the lessons of other successful cities and applying them, as best you can, to your situation. This is an excellent YouTube video on the subject of turning cities into viable existences:
Nothing wrong with taking the lessons of other successful cities and applying them, as best you can, to your situation. This is an excellent YouTube video on the subject of turning cities into viable existences:
10-25-21, 04:33 PM
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Why anybody would post about NL at all in this thread about Paris is the mystery you would be pondering if you really were all that mystified, rather than just being you.
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10-27-21, 09:54 AM
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Mrs. Goreman is 100% French and relates that, in the past, it took 10 years to get motorists to coexist with bikes. However, using national recognition campaigns was well worth this step. Now it is not only acceptable to ride together in the cities, but bikes are expected to come to the front of the line and sit between the stop bar and crosswalk. She is telling me that the most important part of the conversation is the willingness of the French people to be accepting of others. Something that is sorely down-played in our American society. Even though "we" like to advertise otherwise.
10-29-21, 01:02 PM
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I thought Paris was in the ILIAD? I thought Copenhagen was Chewbacca's favorite? In the meantime, when in Paris (FRANCE) sit in a brasserie, savor your mineral water, cafe au fit, and croissant, and enjoy the mayhem in the streets.
11-09-21, 05:02 PM
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Wow, I can't imagine seeing something like that! I've seen roughly 250+ cyclists up close and personal in a race but that's the most I've seen.
