Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Paris

Happy Birthday, Vélib

By Aaron Naparstek | Jul 15, 2008 | 1 Comment

Here’s another transportation policy success story from France. The Vélib bike-sharing system celebrates its one-year anniversary today. In April, Streetfilms’ Elizabeth Press was in Paris to learn more about it. Here is her video and report: On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world’s largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike […]

The Latest Innovation From Paris: Cargocycles

By Brad Aaron | May 22, 2008 | 15 Comments

Streetsblog contributor Ethan Kent sends along this item from CoolTown Studios, profiling what it calls "the contemporary urban delivery vehicle": So what’s the delivery truck equivalent of the bicycle? Look no further than Paris, the home of 20,000 shared bikes, and there you’ll find La Petite Reine, a delivery company that utilizes a fleet of […]

How Happy Are Parisians With Vélib?

By Brad Aaron | May 8, 2008 | 8 Comments

The latest figures from the Paris Vélib bike sharing program are in. User stats and survey results are posted on the official web site, but for those who don’t parlez Français, here’s a summary: Rides to date: 20 million Average trips/day: 70,000 Average trip time: 18 minutes 190,000 annual pass holders 42% of users […]

Streetfilm: Paris Skates!

By Ben Fried | Apr 24, 2008 | 4 Comments

Streetfilms’ Elizabeth Press kicks off a series of videos about livable streets in Paris with this look at the city’s two weekly romps on skates — roller-versions of Critical Mass that attract up to 15,000 participants. Notice that the police are an essential part of the proceedings (and they seem to have fun doing it […]

How Paris is Beating Traffic Without Congestion Pricing

By Ben Fried | Apr 22, 2008 | 31 Comments

Biking by the Seine during car-free hours on the Georges Pompidou Expressway. The mayor of a global metropolis, elected to his first term in 2001, set out to reduce driving and promote greener modes of transportation in his city. Congestion pricing turned out to be unfeasible, because influential political forces in the suburbs believed, rightly […]

Après Congestion Pricing, It’s Time to Look at the Paris Model

By Aaron Naparstek | Apr 15, 2008 | 19 Comments

Amsterdam Ave. and 76th St. with street space reallocated to walkers, bikes and buses. When Transportation Alternatives, Project for Public Spaces and the Open Planning Project started the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign nearly three years ago, the plan was to build a movement that would work block-by-block and neighborhood-by-neighborhood to reclaim the city’s […]

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