How Paris Kicked Out the Cars | Hacker News Reader

How Paris Kicked Out the Cars

slate.com

56 pointsjgwil211 comments

It excites me so much to see this. Really impressed to see this article give a voice to both sides:

- the urbanites who want more space to walk, safer spaces to bike, and easy access to amenities without a car

- the suburbanites who want to be able to drive into city for dinner and a movie

I remain confused by the suburbanite argument, though. Is it really so arduous to either park near public transit and ride into the city, or drive to an underground parking garage in town and then walk to your destination? I would think everyone benefits from walkability and bikeability that makes cities quieter, cleaner, and cooler (thanks to trees and less car exhaust). Seems like folks who want to drive right to the front door of their destination can just stay in the suburbs instead of demanding that they drive their car right into the city.

I also thought that it's interesting to see certain luxury goods merchants -- I think the article called out pianos and furniture, specifically -- losing business as cars get harder to drive into the city. On one hand, it's unfortunate that a pedestrian-friendly city can't accommodate these businesses better. But the quoted attitude doesn't feel very productive: “Do you know much freight gets delivered [in the region] every year? Twenty million tons. Imagine how many cargo bikes that is.”

The basic math checks out to... roughly 300 million bicycle trips (at 300kg per delivery) to deliver all of that freight. Which doesn't seem totally insane? Especially when you compare it to the stated 700kg delivery weight of city-based delivery trucks, which means you still need >100 million truck trips to deliver all of that freight. Something like 9/10 orders can be delivered more efficiently by bike, according to the article, because parking is easier. Obviously you can't deliver everything by bicycle, but it seems counterproductive to rules bicycles out entirely because occasionally someone needs a Tesla delivered to their house.

Anyway, I'm still waiting with bated breath for a US city to swing in this direction. I'd move there in a heartbeat.

Personally I’d love my suburb to go in this direction. There are so many problems with cars.

- They’re expensive

- They make people unhealthy from pollution and inactivity

- They make people anti-social because they never see their neighbors except through the tinted windows of their suburban assault vehicles

- Huge amounts of space is wasted because it’s dedicated to cars for driving or parking

- They pollute the air with emissions

- They create huge amounts of noise pollution

- They restrict the possible amount of housing because of requirements for housing to include space for parking 2+ cars per family

I could go on but a world without cars would be so nice.

I wonder why culs-de-sac don't ever follow a "superblock" model where everyone parks their cars in one place, then walks a short distance to their home? I understand that it's "less efficient" if all you care about is how fast you can get into and out of your car. But it seems far safer for children, far quieter for living, and cheaper because you don't have to build and maintain pavement roads that go everywhere.

I have to be honest, even if it is only 50 ft, i don't want to sprint through pouring rain to get to my house after a long day at the office.

Don’t houses in cul de sacs have garages? In my city I’ve never seen one that didn’t.

People living in the suburbs would be happy to take the subway to the city if it was clean, safe and not full of random homeless crazy people.

I’m all for making cities pedestrian only, but you also need to build a comfortable way to go there. Paris is only doing half of the job.

Is that a huge problem on the Paris metro? I haven't ridden it in years, so I'm sadly lacking in practical experience. I know it's a major issue over here in the States, though. Similarly, it's difficult to justify biking around in the states, too, because so many metro areas have angle grinder-wielding crazies cruising around, looking for fresh bikes to steal. Hopefully Paris has solved some of that issue.

Admittedly it has been a while since I've been in Paris but as far as I know the city does not have an above average problem with homelessness or mental health, particularly in its metro system. I know it's a huge problem in the U.S., though, so maybe you are confusing the two contexts.

Paris also has a substantial bus system and the article highlights the opportunities created for biking. So even if the metro would have problems, many people can rely on other modes of transport.

A few months ago I took the kids to Paris for a day. The move to bicycles is nothing short of amazing!

As someone who needs to be 1x a month in Paris for a week I can confirm that I was hugely impressed. On red lights you sometimes see so many bikes (congestion) that you can’t even see where it ends. On streets like near the louvre/palais royale the quietness was beautiful instead of the highway-feeling it used to be.

However one element my coworkers tell me is that typically Parisien houses (old houses) have no parking space for bikes. So even if one of the assistant would want to come by bike she can’t park it a home. Streetparking will result in theft or demolition. So the problem is not solves by only reworking the steets.

I'm more curious to watch and see how they're gonna kick out the assholes from government. If anybody stands a chance to set a good example in that direction, it'll likely be them.

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