behind me is Rivoli one of the great High streets of Paris but this one’s a bit different because back in 2020 the City of Paris installed a bike lane on the street and not just any bike lane a massive bike lane basically 3/4 of the street was turned over to bikes and the one remaining Lane is only used for buses and taxis and transport trucks so basically the city said to car drivers yeah you can use all the other streets but not this one which must have killed economic activity on the street right because we’re told all the time that cars are essential to economic Vitality of a street except even here on a cold November day the street is still packed with people and how would you explain this report that looked at occupancy rates as one measure of economic activity and it measured this street right in line with paris’s other high streets and also how would you explain that big Brands expanded their stores on the street even after these bike lanes were created maybe that’s because there’s a realization that cars don’t shop people shop
36 Comments
A real culprit would be internet shopping
He’s packed and my packed are totally different.the streets are empty.
I have never heard such hog-wash in all my life. Where didi you get that data from. highly dubious!
This is NOT the right way to do it!Cars can always drive on the bike lane if they want it.Must be a real separation.
You were told wrong. Cars aren't essential to economic activity
The other side you are referring to is also sparse of people. The only thing which is super distracting in this video is the horde of cyclists passing by constantly like the London rush hour. It is an eye sore unless you’re into watching the Tour de France passing by while stopping off for a quick coffee on your journey from or too somewhere other than this road. France and Paris is a beautiful place but this road doesn’t motivate me to visit, live or work in, but if it has made the citizens there happy then I concede that I am wrong.
It's not rocket science, just look at Amsterdam (or the whole Netherlands) and Copenhagen.
"Occupancy rates" can't be your only metric in a socialist country. Socialist democracies require greater scrutiny to see if such things are actually working, or if the people with the data just want you to think that.
If I can point out the obvious……you are not going to buy products or even groceries if you've just got a bicycle that cannot haul anything.
I am pro bike lanes in general but I live right next to this street and it’s a nightmare to cross as the cyclists don’t respect the red lights. It’s become a lot more dangerous.
Dude! Would have been for me! I cant walk 100 feet and i am just all over the road, the bushes, the people on a bike! 😂😂😂 It's not always about privilege, sometimes it's about genetic spine issues! Dont be a Dick!
So how do the people take home eight bags of groceries and then pick up the kids?
They bans cars on the streets but they don't provide any car parks in the neighbourhood. Not everyone can get to them places by bus / train / métro.
I mean, it's PARIS. There's only one Paris. You could declare that people could only get around by hopping on one foot and they'd still have more tourists than they knew what to do with.
Your just taking one example…go to any town centre in UK its DEAD. Car drivers now allowed near town centers and extortionate parking charges have killed uk shopping areas. Fff. UK woke liberalism
Totally opposite Philadelphia experience with "Chestnut Street Transitway" which was returned to mixed use with cars.
The transit experiment caused business to decline, leaving only check cashing and pawnshops. Then again only working poor take buses in Philadelphia
It depends on a lot of different factors and there are examples, where it actually changed the situation for the worse.
It should be done on economical and ecological and not on purely ideological grounds, which is often the case, unfortunately.
The high street does not depend on cars but parking space. At Rue de Rivoli (old version) there was no place to park your car and go shopping.
What about when car owners want to shop with larger groceries that they cant simply carry on a bike and busses?
Bikes can usually carey like a few bags but what when carrying alot of bags like for cars???
Some smug virtue signalling. Excellent.
Cars don’t equal commerce. Cars pass through, leaving all of the negative externalities on local businesses and homes.
absolutely wrong. they tried this with one of the busiest streets in Berlin, Germany – more than half the stores went broke and left.
What a stupid idea. We have to deal with the same feel good nonsense in Boston . It makes our narrow streets even narrower and we lose parking spots and what not. People have too much time in their hands and too much tax payers’ money to waste!
What? Do people who ride bikes also shop? It'll never take off.
This is fantastic except where I live it’s 72F/22C at 7am and 100% humidity. Then 40C/100+F on the ride home.
Riding a bike means I’d need to take a shower twice a day since I be drenched in sweat. That’s adds 30 min to my commute each way and washing clothes a lot. So much for saving water. So keep those ignorant comments going about how this should be done “everywhere”.
gee could ehe absence of massive theft, tent city, mental illness and open air drugs be at issue. screw the bikes
It is simple common sense: when I drive with a car through a street, I have to focus on traffic, not on the shops. Also if I decide to go to a certain shop, I have to find a parking spot first.
As a pedestrian I can just walk in. As a biker, there are many parking spots nearby or directly on front of a shop.
Packed with people?
You summarised it perfectly: people shop, cars don't.
Dear communist anti-White and anti-Christian propaganda channel, WE SEE YOU…
wow a street that runs next to the world's most popular museum is busy. shocker. lmao!
Amazing that people think through traffic brings economic activity when the Interstate program killed so many towns. Pedestrians and bikes move through places, cars drive PAST places.
Thanks for this vidéo. Here on France, we usually hear more about people angry about Paris without cars than the outcome…
Paris/France should fix illegal immigrants first.
The problem with rue de Rivoli’s layout is that there isn’t enough room for public transportation. As a result, elderly people or those with limited mobility have to avoid it now because it is always jammed.
It's just about ways for people to get there. If you take away lanes in a car centric place, with poor transit, and a bad/no bike network, ya it will suck. Support different methods, and give alternatives and the path of least resistance will happen.