Paris2024 – Declining car dominance (1/3)
This summer, France and Paris in particular are all about the Olympic Games. The transformation of this city into a grand sporting festival site has major consequences for the city.
Even more Parisians than usual left the city this summer – fearful of the invasion of sports fans. Many of the residents who fled had to watch with some regret as their city presented itself in a unique and ‘Seine-sational’ way while the expected influx of fans did not materialize.
To experience this for myself and because many hotel rooms were still empty, I decided to take the train and immerse myself in an Olympic Paris.
In the coming period I will describe my (professional) observations in a triptych:
- Declining car dominance
- The Olympic Place Games
- Seats and seating
DECLINING CAR DOMINANCE.
Some time ago I posted about Paris’ initiative to keep Place de la Concorde partly car-free even after the games. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lxdejong_carfree-paris2024-publicspace-activity-7222957285487116288-T8-L)
In recent years, Paris has already done everything necessary to reduce the dominance of the car. Many downtown ‘highways’ have already been changed from two-way to one-way traffic. The other half of these wide roads have easily been turned into bi-directional cycle lanes by simply painting a bicycle on them.
Many roads were closed – permanently or temporarily – during the games to facilitate the realization of the many sports venues and events. This gave enormous peace of mind to the visitors of the city. The method of fencing the roads could have been better in my opinion. Why not just close off the intersections and add the roads to the public space as a temporary shared space – for cyclists, pedestrians and for example extra large terraces for the restaurants. Because of the complete fencing, the sidewalks that now had to be shared with restaurants, pedestrians and (illegal) cyclists felt even narrower.
These temporary adjustments have shown that the dominance of the car can be reduced quite a bit and how this can improve the quality of life in the city.
