Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Paris

How Happy Are Parisians With Vélib?

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  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!

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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

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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 […]

Today the Périphérique. Tomorrow the FDR.

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Here’s an idea to file away for PARK(ing) Day 2008. In this video (which starts to pick up after the :45 mark), Paris Deputy Mayor Denis Baupin narrates Operation "Carré Vert" ("Green Square"), an intervention in which activists re-allocate road space on the Périphérique — the highway that encircles the city — in a matter […]

“My Other Car Is a Bright Green City”

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As attention turns to the next federal transportation bill, and livable streets fans scan the platforms of presidential candidates for glimpses of what to expect from Washington over the next four years, Alex Steffen, editor and CEO of the blog WorldChanging, has posted an essay-in-progress called "My Other Car is a Bright Green City." Steffen […]