In Paris, bicycle trips have surpassed car trips

Thursday 4 April The Institut Paris Région (IPR), one of the largest regional urban planning and environmental agencies on the European continent, has published a regional survey on the mobility of the French, from which it emerged that the majority of citizens now prefer to travel by bike rather than by car.In fact, although the car remains the first motor vehicle used in the Region, with a strong preponderance in the outskirts of the city, the majority of residents in Paris now uses two wheels or public transport.The study confirms the efforts of the French capital in its work to discourage the use of the machine and individual motorized means of transport, which the city has been carrying out for years through targeted and more structural operations.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 3,337 French citizens between the ages of 16 and 80 who agreed to equip themselves with GPS for seven consecutive days.According to the IPR, the investigation confirms "the great constants of French mobility".Apparently, the majority of Parisians move for work reasons, especially if we look at the case of workers alone, who in only a third of cases do not move for work reasons.As for the medium in the “necessary” travel, the car remains the most used by those who live outside the city, with a vehicle occupancy rate of 1.04 for cases of home-work travel, but those who reside in more central areas prefer the use of public transport.Specifically, 45% of people would travel from home to work by public transport, compared to 33% who would instead use the car;these percentages are much more directional when it comes to students, who in 67% of cases travel by public transport to go to study.As for the “unnecessary” travel, the study finds that the majority of Parisians prefer to move on foot, so much so that 44% of citizens who live in more central areas travel by walking;the situation is similar even in the more peripheral areas, where however people who travel on foot for personal reasons amount to 33%.Generally speaking, however, i.e. looking at both unnecessary and necessary trips, the study claims that "Parisians use more the bike and the car”.

The data detected by IPR is in line with the Parisian trend which sees the city committed for years to promoting sustainable mobility.In this regard, Paris has introduced the 30km/h limit all over the city, trying to rethink organically their own roads to guarantee mobility that is increasingly less designed for cars.Furthermore, at the beginning of February, the administration introduced a new rule, approved by citizens via referendum, which triples the price of parking for SUVs, effectively limiting access to the city.In general, Paris is trying to be the bearer of structural measures to encourage the use of more sustainable means of travel, as other European cities are doing.In this regard, it would be enough to think of London, a city with 30 on over 50% of the roads and equipped with 72 underground stations for 11 lines, equal to 402 kilometers of railway.

As far as bikes are concerned, it is certainly a key example of a large city in which it is the most used means of transport Amsterdam, which with its 400 kilometers of cycle path is known for being one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, so much so that it is estimated that there are over 880,000 bicycles in the city;again as regards mobility on two wheels, it is also particularly populated by bikes Copenhagen, which with its 350 kilometers of cycle path and an estimated half a million bicycles, would have approximately one bicycle per inhabitant.In general, according to the Global Bicycle Cities Index, in Northern Europe there would be most of the citiesbike friendly” in the world, looking both at small towns and large cities.In Italy according to a recent survey IPSOS, bicycle use appears to be growing, but as noted Legambiente, the country is still at sea to talk about sustainable mobility, and needs structural interventions.

[by Dario Lucisano]