How Paris 2024 is pedalling towards a greener future
At a glance
Paris aims to become a fifteen-minute city, allowing its residents to reach essential services by active travel within fifteen minutes, and in so doing, lower carbon emissions and encourage healthier living.
The city has taken the opportunity to leverage the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games to enhance its bike lanes and urban landscape as part of a bold sustainable urban vision. It's a testament to how mega events can help spur development in sustainable infrastructure to benefit the urban environment.
Expanding bike lanes: A path to sustainable mobility
Fifteen minutes—that’s the goal for how long an average Paris resident would have to travel, by foot, to reach necessary services such as schools, groceries, banks, workplaces and government offices. To hit this ambitious target, Paris is promoting cycling as a primary mode of transportation.
The Paris 2024 Olympics aims to leave a positive legacy of active travel and green infrastructure for the city, with the construction of 60 kilometres of new bike lanes within the city, leading to nearby suburbs. This is in addition to the more than 1,000 kilometres of existing bike lanes prior to the Games.
Eighty per cent of the Paris 2024 venues are located within a 10-kilometre radius and less than half an hour from the Olympic Village. These new lanes link Olympic venues to each other, making it possible for cyclists to pedal their way from one event to the next. An additional 3,000 pay-as-you-go bikes and 10,000 cycling parking spaces were introduced to encourage more people to choose biking over driving during this tourist-heavy season.
Paris residents and visitors have taken to the city’s ongoing initiatives to promote cycling exceptionally. According to a study by the Paris Region Institute published in April 2024, 11.2% of transportation within the city interior is done by bicycle, compared to the 4.3% done by car.
When it comes to transportation between the suburbs and city centre, 14% is travelled by bicycle while 11.8% is by car. The behaviour change has shown an increasing adoption of cycling, and a lesser dependence on private vehicle ownership.
The benefits of expanding bike lanes are substantial. According to a study by the World Health Organization, increasing active travel modes such as cycling can prevent more than 60,000 deaths annually in Europe from air pollution and physical inactivity. Moreover, active travel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport by up to 25%, offering a significant contribution to combating climate change.
In Paris, these bike lane expansions don’t just promote cycling, they create a healthier, more sustainable urban environment.
The impact of urban forests: Greening the city
Alongside the development of additional bicycle lanes, Paris embarked on an impressive endeavor to plant 200,000 trees in the city. After all, cycling would be far less appealing if it meant enduring poor air quality, excessive heat, or the discomfort of cold rainfall.
City trees are invaluable, as they cleanse the air of pollutants and enhance air quality. They also mitigate the urban heat island effect – a phenomenon where urban areas experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas – by providing shade and facilitating evapotranspiration. Trees increase biodiversity with habitats for different birds, insects, and plants.
Urban greenery improves public health by enabling recreational and social activities that benefit mental and physical wellbeing. Urban forests are also key players in countering climate change. By taking in carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen, they help reduce carbon emissions.
Building on existing plans and initiatives
The groundwork laid by Paris's environmental initiatives was essential for its recent Olympic plan. The Greening Plan, initiated in 2014, targeted the planting of 20,000 trees by 2020 and sought a 50% rise in per capita green space. By 2019, with over 16,000 trees planted and in excess of 30 hectares of new green spaces developed, this commitment to urban vegetation supported Paris's successful bid for the 2024 Olympics.
Paris's Plan Vélo, initiated in 2015, aimed to double bike lanes from 700 km to 1,400 km by 2020, aspiring to make cycling the second favourite transport option after public transit. By 2019, Paris had over 1,000 km of bike paths and boosted the percentage of bike trips from 5% to 10%, underscoring a persistent commitment to encourage sustainable cycling.
The efforts of Paris to broaden its network of bike paths and develop urban green spaces are a great prompt for Brisbane to emulate the efforts of Paris to enhance its green infrastructure and promote a city of greater mobility.
The City of Brisbane has an ambitious plan of increasing its active transport mode share to 50% by 2031, which means more people walking, cycling, and using public transit. To achieve this goal, Brisbane needs to invest in expanding and improving its bike paths, pedestrian walkways, and public transport network, as well as creating more green spaces and urban forests.
By following the example of Paris, Brisbane can not only prepare for a successful and sustainable Olympic event, but also improve the quality of life and wellbeing of residents and visitors now and into the future.