As Parisians prepare to vote in Sunday’s municipal election, outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo’s decade-long push to cut vehicle use and expand cycling is under scrutiny as candidates debate whether to build on or roll back policies that have reshaped the French capital’s streets.
Around 1,000km of cycle lanes have been introduced since Socialist Hidalgo took over Paris City Hall in 2014.
The changes mean nearly half of Parisians now ride a bicycle at least once a week, according to cyclists’ group Paris en Selle (“Paris in the saddle”).
“The more the city is redesigned to accommodate it, the morecycling increases,” Marion Soulet, head of the group, told Reuters. “People like it because it’s easy, inexpensive and fast.”
The push to reshape Paris from a polluted metropolis into a “15-minute city” with bike lanes and more trees is the result of policies pursued by Hidalgo and earlier left-wing administrations, which have run City Hall since 2001.
But now, that ecological legacy is being challenged. Hidalgo is not standing for mayor again, and right-wing rivals hope to capitalise on frustrations over an increasingly car-free city, disruptive roadworks and rising municipal debt.
The latest opinion poll put Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire, who wants to push ahead with the green agenda, in the lead on 31 percent. But his main rival Rachida Dati, of the conservative Republicans (LR) party, is close behind on 26 percent.
Dati, a former culture minister in the current government and justice minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, argues the classical character of Paris is being undermined.
“We’re not fighting an ideological battle on [transportation] issues,” Dati told news agency Reuters while greeting shoppers in northern Paris. “We just want things to be organised.”
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Contested transformation
Under Hidalgo, City Hall says it has planted 130,000 trees, removed tens of thousands of on-street parking spaces and pedestrianised former roads along the River Seine. Speed limits in the city have been capped at 30km/h.
Car traffic has fallen by more than 60 percent since 2002 and cycling has more than tripled, according to city data. Air pollution has also improved.
“There aren’t many major cities in the world that have experienced such a spectacular transformation,” said Patrick Le Gales, an urban specialist at Sciences Po University.
But critics say the changes have been disruptive and divisive. Paris’ municipal debt stands at close to €10 billion – up from €4.18bn in 2014.
Pierre Chasseray, head of motorists’ lobby group 40 Million Motorists, said the policies had created a “Berlin Wall” between wealthier residents in central Paris, which has a good public transport network, and car-dependent suburban commuters.
“We’ve ended up with a caricatured image of the capital: motorists on one side, cyclists on the other – the good guys versus the bad guys,” he said.
Hidalgo has also faced a social media campaign using the #saccageParis (“trashed Paris”) hashtag that highlights everything from chronic roadworks to rubbish-strewn pavements.
Grégoire, Hidalgo’s deputy, said the mayor had been too ambitious. “We did too many things at the same time,” he said.
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Dati challenged on the right
Dati has softened her initial criticism of popular cycle lanes and instead focused on concerns over dirty streets. In a campaign video widely shared on TikTok, she appears in a hi-vis jacket helping municipal bin men on their early morning rounds.
“The city is increasingly dirty – it hasn’t escaped anybody,” she said.
Her more moderate stance on transport issues, along with a corruption trial scheduled for September – charges she denies – has opened space for Sarah Knafo, candidate for the far-right nationalist Reconquest party.
Knafo has proposed a plan, generated by artificial intelligence, to bring cars back to the banks of the Seine and has filmed campaign interviews while driving through Paris.
She would also raise the 50 km/h speed limit on the Paris ring road back to 80 km/h, slash parking fees to €5/hour for all vehicles (currently €37 for SUVs) and add 15,000 new parking spaces.
Knafo, who is predicted to win 12 percent in Sunday’s first round of the election, has offered to join forces with Dati for the second round in order to defeat the left.
According to Soulet, Knafo’s car-friendly policies have limited appeal.
“It’s a very small group of Parisians who want to turn the clock back,” she said.
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(with Reuters)
