An Urban Designer Analyses the Crazy Bike Lanes in Paris (Antithesis 1/2)
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
- Part 2 of 3
When you've designed bicycle infrastructure and facilities around the world and written the book about Best Practice design (link below), you probably have a few things to say about a city's development towards becoming bicycle-friendly.
Caution! It is possible that Paris has more infrastructure for bikes than wherever you might be from. But please be wary of succumbing to Betterthannothingism. When a city blatantly designs badly, we risk this bad design becoming legitimized and copied. Design and Best Practice is nothing new - it's tried and tested. Using it saves money, grows cycling exponentially and can save lives.
So what does an urban designer make of the new bike infrastructure? Paris has a declared, bold goal of being the "Best City in the World for Cycling... by 2020". It's now 2023.
One thing is for sure, he is glad he's not a tax-payer in Paris, what with the wasteful amounts spent on sub-par design for bikes.
Let's find out in Part 3 of this three-part series.
Mikael's website: colville-andersen.com
Links:
Center-running lanes in Barcelona. Excerpt from the season 3 episode of the Life-Sized City TV series:
• Sad ending of Russians...
The Book
islandpress.org/books/copenha...
0:00 Intro
0:28 Blvd Sebastopol
3:28 Rue de Rivoli
6:34 Blvd de Magenta
9:34 Olympistes
14:11 Av. de Turbigo
#hegel #philosophy #urbanism #urbanplanning #urbandesign #cycling #bicyclefriendly #paris #france #expert #bikes #bike #bikelife #velib #bikeshare #design #designer #critique #rivoli #bicycleurbanism 
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To be honest I'm actually quite fond of the bidirectional bike lanes. It just makes me feel more reassured because I won't need to cross the road just to be able to go in the opposite direction. So once I'm in, I can just go at either direction and most importantly, having two adjacent lanes means there's more space, which is great for surpassing and stuff.
The most timorous 25% of the population will not get on a bike until the infrastructure is safe, lucid and uniform. Great merit in the video's observations.
Surprise québécois swearing at the end had me laughing!
And he’s back! Very nice video, man! I love to hear such a fun and well informed perspective! 😮
I visited Paris with my bike and obviously cycled a lot and I never had an issue. ALL streets have bicycle lanes, even if they're painted, and drivers respect people on bikes, it's great!
Great video! By the way, I think Paris chose the Olympics for the new urban infrastructure that came with it. It made it easier to convince the Parisians and politicians.
Convincing the citizens plus the politicians wow its an excellent take Bravo
And also an unwarranted sentimentality for a certain Pierre de Frédy, baron de Coubertin.
Can we talk about how some of the major streets have no trees?! As far as painting bike lines, it makes perfect sense when they are first introduced in a city and people are not yet familiar with the idea, this way they stand out to everyone. Same now in Poland, some are painted red especially at intersections (ie Wroclaw) and in a country were the car was always king (including not even stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks until recent years) having the bike lanes stand out is great for safety, at least for another decade or two when the car culture hopefully changes.
Yeah in Canada we don't usually paint bike lanes but we do often paint through intersections as even with bike lanes that have been there a long time, bike lanes are unfortunately rare/new enough that a lot of people just aren't looking out for them, and the paint helps
Thanks for expressing my constant frustration about bike lane design in Paris. While since 10 years it has improved massively there are still really stupid designs and as you said even in the new ones. Also I mostly agree with you about the shared bus lanes but with taxis believing they are allowed to use them it’s just hell. I’m mostly ok to share with buses because most of the time they are considerate and the bus bells are great to be aware of a bus coming from behind but taxis hell no.
We need the rest of your analysis !
Oh and thank you for all this because as an everyday user of Paris infrastructure sometimes I forget to see the good points.
Great video! Living in São Paulo I've always thought that those centered bike lanes were such a waste. Same thing here in Sorocaba. Lots of people would rather take their chances and bike with the cars than wait around for minutes just to get into the bike lanes - sometimes crossing the road to get there is even more dangerous.
"People will decide whether or not this design is good. They will reject a bad design and they will embrace a good design." 100% right.
I love your videos. You're almost making me like motor bikes though, by the way you roll your eyes whenever one goes past.
thanks for the Hegel nightmares.
Since I lived in Copenhagen I feel your pain!!!! And in secondary cities in France they are getting ruined to build bike lanes as it is a necessity but it is sooo messy... Now in Barcelona it is kind of the same, they always build it at the wrong side. But local decision makers don't want planners with solutions in their teams 😅
Really enjoying the channel, man! I lived in Paris many years ago, these videos bring back memories and make me want to come over for a visit! Where did you get that jacket? Smart & waterproof? I need one! From grey & chilly Ireland! ☘💪🏽👀👍🏽☘
This reminds me how some cities in the US are trying to improve some of their infrastructure ahead of the 2026 World Cup games. They're not all improving at the same rate, and it feels like it takes the entire city's approval just to get a single project done, but it's happening however slowly. For example, I live in Philly. They're planning to redesign the Ben Franklin Parkway, which is currently a major thoroughfare for cars around a park and an art museum, and the current bicycle infrastructure is painted green lanes that switch sides of the street. It's incredibly confusing for everyone, but the plan is to redesign it with separated bicycle lanes, more bike parking, only two lanes for cars, and more pedestrian infrastructure. They're also extending both the Delaware River Trail and the Schuylkill River Trail. They're capping part of I95 to reconnect neighborhoods to the Delaware River. They're redesigning Spring Garden Street to include a grade separated bike lane. I think it's going to be bidirectional, but currently it's just paint between parked and moving cars. They're adding curb protection to the bike lane on Market Street. There are talks about capping the Vine Street Expressway in order to start renewing Chinatown. Some of the neighborhood organizations are also pushing for bike lanes on wider neighborhood streets. Like Paris, it's a jumbled mess of some lanes being bidirectional, some uni-directional on each side, a couple are in the middle, and one way streets with bike lanes have them on the left side. Some streets, like the parkway, have the bike lanes switch sides of the street, which is incredibly dangerous and confusing, but at least the desire for improvement is growing.
A small problem of sound at the beginning of the video is noticeable
Yeah, it stops being stereo and there's only sound in the right channel. Easy fix, just copy the right channel to the left.
Cool video great compilation!!
Haha! Swearing in Quebecois! BOOM! 🔥🧨💪🏽🤠👍🏽🧨🔥
during the Blvd Sebastopol segment the sound on the left ear is pretty bad
I was thinking you could be Canadian... then: 15:59 lol ! Nothing like quelques gros mots en québécois mdr.
Being from Los Angeles, Paris is almost Bicycle Heaven, man! (that would be Utrecht). One of my favorite things about visiting Paris is getting around by bike. It's sooooo much better.
But I definitely see your points. Paris is still in Phase I - get them out there!! Phase II will be refining the bike lanes. They've already refined a few. But the main thing is that they keep going and don't give up!
Great, well-presented show! Here in the Netherlands, we just have a unidirectional bike lane on both sides of the street, cars in the middle, easy does it, it doesn’t have to be so hard, right?
I am confused, I remember to have seen many bidirectional cycle lanes all over The Netherlands.
@@monowheelingThey exist, but in general not in the city next to a street. You would generally see them outside cities, industrial zones, or for example through a park.
@@annekekramer3835 Idk, where do you live? It took me less than two minutes to find the Zuidwal street in the middle of Delft on Google maps as a counterexample. And the Mekelweg too. And the Stieltjesstraat at Nijmegen train station. I am just really really lucky? I don't think so. It looks to me like bidirectional lanes are well in the (more recently) established tool set city planners use in The Netherlands too.
That was hilarious, thank you! The strong point of the French is their creativity and enthusiasm, and the weak point is their consistency.
There is another city which has benefitted from the Olympics: Munich. Besides great sport infrastructure that is still being used today, the city owes its subway network and thus the backbone of its public transit to the games.
Very good Explanation but not only the bike lanes but the urban green corridor is going to be Amazing in Paris, especially the buses and their stops is a new example for other cities to address public Transportation issues.
I loved seeing that quick clip of one bike carrying another bike. It really shows how versatile they are!
To be fair Sydney did pretty well out of the Olympics, they built new rail lines across new parts of the city and remediated a massive block of land for new high density housing and commercial area.
Talk about branding, I'm curious about Manchester's Bee routes.
15 second in and I can't help but note that this is low key the 13th Doctor without his TARDIS
Also, add LA to your Olympics effects cities. They’re binging on badly-needed transit ahead of their Olympics, and are doing more than connecting sport venues, hotels, and airports. They’re trying to lay down some non-automotive backbones for many kinds of neighborhoods and job locations.
Spitting facts just there bro
I think we all want to see an Eyeroll Supercut video of Mikael :-)
Living in Copenhagen and being French I agree 3000 pourcents avec toi ! Le design est incompréhensible bien souvent en France. Quand vas tu travailler pour la Mairie ?
Same experience! Once you know CPH all the designs in other cities seems so chaotic
Thank you for the videos and don't hesitate to come out of Paris intramuros to see more aménagements de merde !
I invite you to Bulgaria. Come and see what is the true definition of "we pretend we care about the city infrastructure, but we actually care only about our pockets". Quote: government
I have come to like bidirectional bike lanes by using them. I really prefer having to the left of me an opposite bike lane to almost any other possible choice, like a car lane or a lane for parking cars or a barrier that I can't use as a possible escape route. And to the right I should get double the space to the street or the sidewalk compared to two single lanes (two single lanes need two spacers on each side, so we can use both).
In what sense are bidirectional lanes so much worse than unidirectional lanes? What is the evidence that we have for that?
Riding your bike on the wrong side of the road (which on a bi-directional bike lane you have to do) increases your risk of death or severe injury twelve-fold.
@@turboseize what's your source? I am almost certain your number comes not from investigating usage of bidirectional cycle lanes. There is no way to extrapolate data from riding (illegally) on the wrong side of the road to riding legally on a bidirectional (seperated) cycle lane.
@@monowheelingThese are figures that are often cited by ADFC (and probably gained from some police statistic or from the german association of traffic accident insurers).
The problem is not about the legality of riding a bike against traffic. It is about riding a bike against traffic. The fact that on a bi-directional bike path riding against traffic is legal doesn't magically make it safer.
The increased risk comes from the fact that a driver has a certain field of view - and that the brain can only do so many things at once.
Imagine a driver making a right turn. He has to slow down, check the mirrors on his right side and turn his head and look over his shoulder, to make sure he does not run over any cyclist that is driving with the traffic on his right side. He also has to check the area directly in front of him (pedestrian crossing, etc). And, if there is a bi-directional lane, he also has to check the opposite direction at the same time!
The mere act of twisting your head from left to right takes some time, then add a second to process that information. A cyclist will easily cover 8-9 meters per second. A car lane is somewhat between 2.5 and 4 metres wide. If the bidirectional bike lane is on the sidewalk separated from the street by greenery or parked cars (as is often the case in Europe), a car driver has NO CHANCE to see cyclists from both directions. Pedestrians are slow enough so that this doesn't matter. A pedestrian would need to be a world-class sprinter happening to train right at this intersection to become a problem. But a bike is much, much faster.
If you pay attention to cyclist going with the traffic, then a cyclist riding against traffic will be in front of your bumper before you have a chance to see him or react to him.
To make matters worse, a lot of cyclists have limited driving experience (or none at all, especially in metro areas - a lot of millenials and gen-z don't even have a driving license), so they have not themselves experienced this situation from behind a steering wheel, and cannot see the danger in this situation.
Personally, I'd rather ride on the road than to be forced onto a bike path that runs against traffic. Contrary to popular beliefs, car drivers usually are not actively trying to kill cyclists. I'd rather give them a chance to see me!
The only way to make a bi-directional bike path safe is to clear any obstacles (parked cars, greenery, pedestrians for a good 20 metres from the intersection to ensure a free field of view and to enforce a complete stop of all other traffic with traffic lights. No cars moving while cyclists have a green light!
But as this reduces car throughflow, this will never happen.
@@turboseize in the end, explanations are meaningless, only the empirical data show or do not show the risk and you can't possibly know whether your rationalizations are the true reasons. Are you saying that you have not even read the study showing the number you are referring to or that there doesn't even exist one?
@@monowheelingHave you ever driven a car?
They also have at least one bike lane in center at Helsinki. You can probably count more people shortcutting over it by walking than you can count cyclists using it. It feels very disconnected to use and you have to wait for two red traffic lights, too, if you want to get to the other sidewalk. Because why sync the lights as a continuous long cycle when you can bully people to wait twice. Only to maximize car throughput so that 1 - 3 more cars can potentially get through.
9:05 You copy the Dutch manual and Bob's your uncle.
I don't get the fixation on unidirectional lanes? Is there some logical reason to it or just preference.
Precisely my thought too.
In my experience it is much easier to use, overtake, stop, fall, park, turn on a crossroad with having 2 lanes, talk to a friend, and for bonus points, you can’t crash into another cyclist at great force. Oh, also the other side of the street is not doomed to be close to the cars, without bike lane protection
Cycle lanes should always be wide enough to overtake. If there’s not much bike traffic and space is limited, it’s can be better to build 1 two-lane bike path (and use as bi directional) than 2 one-lane paths.
It is the most efficient and logical. So the bike to not need to cross the road every time you need to change street. Bikes infrastructure should be in paralele kind of a doble level side walk
Dear man. Infrastructure is changing, give it some time. The transformation needs time.
But it could be great at the first try if the understand the infrastructure
@@fredericduhau7669 It is not netherlands. they are not familiar with it. Give it some time it will be fine. Not so long ago ( 10 years) I hardly came across any bikes in paris. You have to learn from your mistakes, and it all has to go fast. I come to paris a lot and see the progress. They never cease to amaze me how they give a place to all facets of traffic, not really a beauty contest, but after 10 years you don't recognise the city anymore.