Ever more walkable cities? I'm there for it!

O.

When I travel, my favorite trips are always to cities that are walkable.

In the states, New York, Washington DC, and Chicago are all great walking cities. As is my hometown of Boston. In Europe, Dublin is surprisingly good for walking. Berlin is another walkable city. As is Paris, which combines walkability with what to me is just breathtaking beauty. (Come to think of it, all of these walkable cities are pretty damned attractive, at least if you're in the center-city parts.)

Anyway, it's been a while since I've been to Paris, but on my trips there, I've easily logged 10 miles a day just strolling around soaking it all in.

And now Paris is becoming even more walkable.
On March 23rd, the good citoyens of the City of Light voted to "pedestrianize" 500 city streets, which will greatly increase the Parisian total - from 200 to 700.

Only 4% of voters turned out, but the results were pretty clear: 66% for, 34% against. (Data source: Reuters)

I love this idea, as do the Paris voters - at least the ones who voted. Only one out of three city center Parisians owns a car. In the outer regions, it's two out of three, and they and the suburbanites aren't quite so enthused about the pedestrianization of Paris.

Public transpo doesn't well-serve a lot of those suburban commuters, and the referendum's passage will result in 10,000 fewer inner-city parking places. This is on top of an other 10,000 that have already been removed over the last five years.
But Paris just plain wants to become more pedestrian (and non-car) friendly.

"For the past 25 years we've gradually been reclaiming public space for pedestrian traffic, for gentle traffic, and with 'garden streets', to create lungs within neighbourhoods, the places where we live," Deputy Mayor Patrick Bloche told Reuters ahead of [the March 23rd] vote.

Paris town hall data shows car traffic in the city has more than halved since the Socialists assumed power at the turn of the century.

Mayor Anne-Hidalgo, in office since 2014, has overseen significant transformation in the city's streets. Since 2020, 84 km (52 miles) of cycle lanes have been created and bicycle usage jumped 71% between the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns and 2023, the data shows. (Source: Reuters)

I do have some sympathy for the car commuters, especially those who don't live convenient to public transportation. But car-enablement is not an unalloyed good (think pollution, congestion, etc.). And the world would be better off investing in public transportation than in more highways and parking lots.

The only pedestrianized street in Boston that comes to mind is Newbury Street on spring-summer-fall Sundays when this lively street - lots of shops and restaurants - is closed to car traffic. And the bleek Downtown Crossing district is quasi car free. Boston has also done a lot of experimenting - not always successful and not always popular - with bike lanes. (Seriously, even a non-car person like me knows that, given bike ridership, all the bike lanes they've put in seem like overkill, and some are being discontinued. While a lot folks do seem to use the Bluebikes for short hops and touring, there doesn't seem to have been any great uptick in commuters using bikes. Boston isn't exactly Amsterdam or Stockholm. There isn't a huge bike culture here, and it hasn't been a case of 'if they build it [bike lanes], they [bike commuters] will come.'

If I had a bucket list, getting back to Paris for one last time would be on it. Think I'll wait a few years and see how pedestrianized this beautiful city has become.