STREETSBLOG ABROAD: We'll Never Have Paris ... Unless We Start Rebuilding Our City Like The French Did - Streetsblog New York City

"PARIS - New York and Paris have a lot in common, but the City of Light is still eating our déjeuner when it comes to increasing livability and pointing the way towards a vehicle-free future. This spring, as U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cancel congestion pricing and rip out urban bike lanes, Parisians voted to remove cars from 500 streets and restore 10 percent of the city's parking spaces to public space."

"In Paris, bollards are everywhere. These sturdy posts, often painted dark green and made of steel or cast iron topped by a sphere, dot the city's well-traversed corridors, guarding curbs like sentries. They stand about three feet high, a little taller than your average baguette, and are placed wide enough on the sidewalk for a stroller or a wheelchair to pass easily, but close enough together that a Vespa rider would think twice about speeding through them."

"New York has long talked about a pedestrian renaissance, but it has always stalled. But Mayor-in-Waiting Zohran Mamdani did tell Streetsblog earlier in the campaign that he would convert travel lanes into pedestrian squares, build more protected bike lanes, adopt more busways, and revamp the city's bus rapid transit service if he became mayor. Après lui, le revolution. But Paris actually shows that transforming streets can be easy. Let us count the ways:"

Parisians voted to remove cars from 500 streets and convert 10 percent of parking spaces into public space, with projects transforming five to eight roads per neighborhood at an average cost of $540,000 each. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has previously calmed 300 busy streets over five years, creating friendlier public realms. Paris uses measures such as ubiquitous bollards to protect curbs and bike paths while allowing pedestrian and wheelchair access. New York has repeatedly stalled on pedestrianization, though a mayoral candidate proposed converting lanes to pedestrian squares, adding protected bike lanes, busways, and overhauling bus rapid transit.

Read at Streetsblog