Every day, millions of people drive through cities without a second thought. They sit in traffic, circle for parking, and breathe air thick with exhaust. But what if I told you that one of the world’s most iconic cities decided to simply erase its own streets?
Paris removed the cars. Ripped out the parking. Handed the space back to people. And in twenty years, car traffic fell by 50 percent — while a river banned to swimmers since 1923 just reopened.
That’s not an accident. That’s engineering. But here’s the strange part.
The idea behind it all came from a Colombian-born mathematician at the Sorbonne — and it became one of the fastest-growing conspiracy theories on the internet.
So what is the fifteen-minute city, really? And what can it teach us about how American cities could be rebuilt?
To answer that, we need to start with a single stretch of road along the Seine.
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26 Comments
"People claimed it was a socialist plot"
I may have shicking news to these people… They should sit down. Good ? Ok. So, the thing is : Anne Hidalgo the (now former) Mayor of Paris is… A SOCIALIST. She is a member of the litteral "Parti Socialiste" 😭
11:43 🧐
The 15 minute city conspiracy was absolutely pathetic, this was likely done by car company lobbies to push back against safer infrastructure and 15 minute ammenities.
they are building 5 new metro lines especially for the suburbs +tram network and also outer bike lanes exactly for these suburbs! so its not like the suburbs are totally forgotten
1.5 billions spent over decades. What a waste. Could h😊ave been used to fight Iran for two full Days
One think I do think planners take into consideration that city don't just become a place where rich can ride around. Paris is so costly that people have now moved far away from Paris but work here and computing from and to paris is not possible by a bike and need car, so add parking places (underground or something) for people living far from city and suburbs near important stations and improve the existing Velib services. It's in merde category currently
I have the privilege of going to Paris for every year since my birth more than 20 Years ago. And i just have to say the city just is so much more fun in the last few years. Its more quiet and cleaner and i dont feel as tired going home to the outskirts of the city, because of the cleaner air. Paris did someting, that is just amazing and i hope more cities try it.
Imo, Moscow would benefit from 15-minute city model. Public transport is already "free" (tax subsidised) for citizens and largly electrified, so expanding it even more and giving space rn taken by cars to people to walk and cycle will benefit almost everyone. The transition shal not be sudden, yet is nesecary for impoving quiality of life
The pronunciations are embarrassing
SF should totally do this
ROAD is not STREET. The street network is intact. Paris removed a part of the ROAD network, NOT the STREET network.
As someone living in Paris I can only approve. I do not need a car. It's such a bliss to be able to pop down to one of the dozen local shops around to where I live to do my shopping! And if like at breakfast I suddenly realise I've run out of milk, it takes me literally 5 minutes to go and get some! To go to work takes me 1/2h by bicycle.
And if I need a car for some reason I can hire one at the touch of a button on my smartphone… Oh, and a short ride down the metro takes me to a high speed train station wherefrom I can catch a train bringing me to the Mediterranean in 3 and a half hours… and that situation is not unique to Paris, I lived in Amsterdam 15 years and it was exactly the same!
Its funny because "15 minute cities" are just how cities were built for 12000 years. Car oriented design has really only been a thing since the 1950s, roughly 70 years. A blip in the timescale of human civilization. People around the world used to be able to meet their needs within a 15 minute walking distance of where they lived. We're simply trying to return to tradition because it makes the most sense and has a ton of benefits. You'd think conservatives would embrace the ideology, until you learn that conservatism is about tribalism, selfish desire, and antisocial behavior so they don't want to do anything that could benefit society if it slightly impedes or changes their way of life.
10:42 this is bad faith at its highest. The cause of the problem is capitalism. Not Paris becoming better.
Ok, but please stop with the AI commentary and script.
I've walked in the seineside linear park, it's lovely
Berlin should listen.
If there is a plot from WEF, it's the exact opposite of the 15min city. They prefer that the people and the capitals flow without any restrictions, rather than people having access to everything within 15min walk, which would be a net loss for big corporations. Imagine buying your book at the local library, rather than ordering through amazon. Nightmare for them
You can use reductive terms like conspiracy theory to dismiss legitimate concerns people had and to make them look silly. The fact is that during lockdowns, many people did in fact experience authorities not allowing them to travel to their own country homes etc in their own cars where they weren't in contact with anyone else. Meanwhile politicians and the wealthy were having parties and had completely different rules for them. The concerns of restricting movement were and are very legitimate because all it takes is a justifying 'event' or cause, and if cities are planned to have everything essential in 15min locales then citizens have no 'excuse' to travel.
These videos, such as NJB and Climate Town, need 100 MILLION views, not freaking 100k-1M. It's high time we got rid of cars in cities, it's a failed dream of the past.
To think about it, cars are incredibly impractical. You'd need a garage or someplace to park it. Periodically do repairs and maintenance, pay for taxes and insurance and whatnot. Spend additional money for fuel to move a 3-tonne vehicle just to transport yourself. Feels like a scam and a moneysink. I never owned a car and not going to entertain such folly. Don't even know how to drive
7:12 the WEF and the WHO, two very famous socialist organizations
So Paris retrofitted it's retrofit for cars.
Also the gentrification concern doesn't make sense.
By that logic noone can ever improve anything.
Also:
I have to repeat my favorite question once more:
Cities are human nests.
So why are they built around the needs of our tools instead of ours?
Why is it AI now? Arrondissement isn't pronounced like that.
the thing about the conspiracy regarding WEF… the idea of 15 min cities is not the issue… it is the idea of making such things mandatory or the state taking our ability to travel at will. and i myself have never owned a car and think they are a great concept… but there are other issues too… like price increases due to new renovations ultimately raising the cost of living in general… plus there is the fact that manufacturing industries would still be long distances…
The pronunciation of the French in this video is noting less than appalling. You could at least make an effort.