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Cycling is a common means oftransportation,sport, andrecreation inParis, France. As of 2021, about 15% of trips in the city are made bybicycle, taking place on over 1,000 km (620 mi) of cycling paths.[1][2] TheTour de France, the largest sporting event in cycling, finishes on theChamps-Élysées.[3][4] Four major recreational cycling routes—EuroVelo 3,Avenue Verte, the Seine à Vélo, and the Veloscenic—pass byNotre-Dame Cathedral.
Following an accident between a horse-drawn carriage and avelocipede on rue Saint-Antoine, a judgment handed down in May 1869 fined the velocipedist one franc, in accordance with article 113 of the ordinance of 25 July 1862,[5] which banned "games involving skittles, palets, barrels, etc." from the streets. This judgement meant velocipedes were banned from the streets of Paris. The Prefect of Police, Léon Renault, lifted the ban with an ordinance on 9 November 1874 that equated a velocipede with a carriage, and thus required it to be equipped with a lantern, bell and license plate.[6]
In 1869, Richard Lesclide, the editor of theLe Vélocipède illustré, organized the world's first city-to-city bicycle road race, from Paris to Rouen. It took place on 7 November 1869 and counted 323 participants. The race was won byJames Moore with a time of 10 hours and 45 minutes.[7]
After having nearly disappeared in the 1980s, when cars were 85 times more frequent than cycling,[8] the number of cyclists in Paris has grown since the 1990s.
There are 1,000 km (620 mi) of cycle paths and routes in Paris. These includepiste cyclable (bike lanes separated from other traffic by physical barriers such as a kerb) andbande cyclable (a bicycle lane denoted by a painted path on the road). Since 2008, 29 km (18 mi) of specially marked bus lanes are also open to cyclists.[9] Cyclists have also been given the right to ride in both directions on certain one-way streets in 20 mph zones.
Paris' bike routes are detailed in guides such asParis de Poche: Cycliste et Piéton (i.e. Pocket Paris: Cyclist and Pedestrian) which costs about €5 orParis à Velo (i.e. Paris by bike), available for free from Paris town hall offices.
Some of the French cycle routes known asvoies vertes (literally "greenways") pass through Paris. One is thePiste du canal de L'Ourcq (theOurcq canal path) which runs 97 km (60 mi) through Paris toSevran.[10]
The long-distance cycle pathEuroVelo 3 passes through Paris. Dubbed the "Pilgrim's Route", it runs betweenSantiago de Compostela in Spain andTrondheim in Norway.
Other international routes that pass through Paris include theAvenue Verte route, which runs between Paris and London. TheAvenue Verte crosses theEnglish Channel atDieppe via theNewhaven – Dieppe ferry.
Following the successful examples of bicycle hire schemes in the cities ofRennes andLyon, the city of Paris launched theVélib' rental bikes system on 15 July 2007. Managed by the companyJCDecaux, there were originally 10,648 bikes available at 750 Vélib' stations. More than 20,600 bikes at 1,451 stations are planned for late 2007 and Paris may eventually have 50,000 Vélib' bikes for hire.
In 2018, Velib' was rebranded asVélib' Métropole, and is now operated by Smovengo. The switch between operators was defined by electrical and software issues that lasted for months, leading many users to abandon their memberships and seek reimbursement.[11]
As of October 2023, 19,000 Velib' bikes are available (40% of which are electric) and there are 1,464 stations located in Paris and its adjoining suburbs.[12] The service had 390,000 subscribers in 2022.[12]
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Paris Respire (literally "Paris Breathes") is a car-free event where certain roads are closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays and public holidays between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm. The roads closed are in popular areas such as along the Seine River, in the Marais, the along the Canal Saint Martin and in Montmartre, as well as some other roads elsewhere in the city. Cycling and walking are the main forms of getting around on these roads on these days.
In Paris, there are two tracks where cyclists can practice racing. The first is an oval track of 3.6km located around theLongchamp Racecourse in the 16th district. It has been used by cyclists since the end of the 19th century, when the first cycling competitions began. Today, the track is the most used cycling segment in France on the sport applicationStrava and one of the most popular in the world. The second place is called thePolygone de Vincennes and it is located in theBois de Vincennes in the 12th district of Paris. The track was recently refurbished.
Le Plan vélo de Paris (i.e. The Paris Bike Plan) was a 150 million euro investment by the city of Paris that aimed to double the length of bike paths in the city between 2015-2020.[13]
The main focus of the plan was to increase the amount of bike paths and parking spots in the city, but the plan also included subsidies for residents to purchase electric bicycles and a focus on increasing opportunities for people to learn how to ride and maintain bikes.[14]
Bicycle counters recorded an average increase in ridership of 47% between 2019 and 2020, and 22% between 2020 and 2021. On some routes, the increase between 2019 and 2020 was as high as 60%.[13] By 2021, Paris had over 1,000km of bike lanes.[14]
In October 2021, Paris MayorAnne Hidalgo announced the second act ofLe Plan vélo de Paris, which has a budget of 250 million euros and aims to add another 180 km of bike lanes to the city.[1] Her goal is to make Paris "100% cyclable".[15][16] The 180 km of new lanes includes the 50 km (31 mi) of temporary bike lanes that were constructed in Spring 2020 during theCOVID-19 pandemic that will now be made permanent.[17] The plan also includes the addition of 130,000 new bicycle parking spots.[1]
Separately, the national government announced in 2023 that it will spend 2 billion euros on new bicycle infrastructure between 2023-2027.[18] If the spending of local and regional authorities is also taken into account, the amount rises to 6 billion euros during the same time frame.[19]
