Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Paris

Adieu, Cars: Paris Riverfront to Be Permanently Returned to the People

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 28, 2016 | No Comments

After years of experimentation, the Paris City Council this week committed to the permanent conversion of two miles of the Georges Pompidou expressway along the River Seine into a waterfront park. The 1960s expressway carried two lanes of traffic and about 43,000 vehicles a day along the Right Bank of the river. But beginning in 2011, the highway […]

Paris to Return Its Great Public Squares to the People

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 19, 2016 | No Comments

If you look at paintings from the pre-automotive era, Paris’s monumental public squares were full of people strolling comfortably. But over time, car traffic has consumed most of these squares. Now, under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris is setting out to remake the city’s squares as great public gathering places. The city is currently in the midst of an initiative to […]

Scenes From the Big Car-Free Day in Paris

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 28, 2015 | No Comments

-Journee sans voitures, Les Champs Elysees, maintenant. -Day without cars, Champs Elysees, now. -Arabasiz gun, Champs Elysees, simdi. #journeesansvoitures #daywithoutcars #arabasizgun #champselysees #champselysées #nofilter #photooftheday A photo posted by Arkun Demiroglu (@arkundemiroglu) on Sep 27, 2015 at 3:13am PDT The air was noticeably clearer yesterday over the city of Paris, where people walking, biking, skating, […]

Paris Mayor Pledges Bold Steps to Reduce Traffic in City Center

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 8, 2014 | No Comments

After a decade of repurposing street space from cars to people, buses, and bikes, Paris isn’t done yet. The world’s most-visited city is now preparing to remove even more traffic from the streets in the name of walkability and clean air. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told the Journal du Dimanche this week that she intends to […]

From London to D.C., Bike-Sharing Is Safer Than Riding Your Own Bike

By Noah Kazis | Jun 16, 2011 | 41 Comments

People riding shared public bicycles appear to be involved in fewer traffic crashes and receive fewer injuries than people riding their personal bicycles. In cities from Paris and London to Washington, D.C. and Mexico City, something about riding a shared bicycle appears to make cycling safer. Paris’s Vélib’ is perhaps the most iconic bike-sharing system […]

European Parking Policies Leave New York Behind

By Noah Kazis | Jan 19, 2011 | 15 Comments

Flashback to Europe, sixty years ago. Just emerging from the ruin of total war, the continent was in the midst of a nearly unprecedented reconstruction. Over the next decade, industry finally was able to turn toward consumer products, from stockings to refrigerators and, of course, the automobile. Italians owned only 342,000 cars in 1950, but […]

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