Anne Hidalgo, the socialist and environmentalist Paris mayor, declared war on cars. When the city became lifeless during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, Parisians shopping for groceries could watch how streets magically narrowed to make way for separate bike lanes that began operating once the government lifted the lockdown for summer. It was apparent that Anne Hidalgo wanted to use the opportunity of a worldwide forced reset caused by COVID to shift the Parisian mindset to think greener.
There could be no better timing. The weather was beautiful. People were less willing to take the metro because of the continuously circulating virus. Plus, the forever nightmarish Parisian traffic. These factors have made Anne Hidalgo’s bet a winning one – the number of people switching to bikes significantly increased. It seemed that the city adapted well to the changes in infrastructure. No cars were set ablaze in the process. Anne Hidalgo progressed with her plan to make Paris “100% bikeable”. Aside from planning new bike lanes, the Paris mayor also thought of frequently occurring bike thefts and small apartments by providing bike lockers where Parisians can store their vehicles.
However, along with its development, the concept began to gain a growing number of opponents, pedestrians. Cyclists took the encouragement of the mayor’s office as a green light to ride their bikes as they please without any restraints. Anne Hidalgo’s dream gradually started turning into a nightmare for pedestrians. Cars are considered bothersome, but the dense buildings of the city and narrow streets restrict the bravado of Parisian drivers by forcing them to drive slowly and stop at least at the traffic lights, therefore maintaining some symbiosis with those who use their feet as a means of transportation.
Free from such limitations, two-wheelers have become the number one danger to pedestrians. Going full speed on sidewalks, not stopping at pedestrian crossings, or not getting off the bike in crowded areas, to name a few. It’s a hundred times more likely to have one’s bones broken by a bike than getting hit by a car in Paris. Videos documenting quite brutal accidents involving two-wheelers are circulating on social media. Even while staying at home, one can experience the bothersome presence of crashes. Food deliveries sometimes arrive with smashed items and spilled liquids for that reason.
People are getting fed up with the situation. Despite leaflets reminding about the number of people who will lose their jobs, distributed by scooter operators, Parisian pedestrians deaf to these pleas voiced their ire in a referendum that banned shared electric scooters in the city. Even though the turnout was low, the decision proved there was enough determination to end the service. What sounds surprising is the fact it was Anne Hidalgo herself who organized the referendum. Initially, she hadn’t even intended to ask anybody’s opinion.
The Paris mayor is aware of complaints about the significant deterioration in road safety caused by the massive expansion of single-track vehicles. Parisians might favor the idea of a more sustainable city, but not at the cost of risking injuries on a daily basis. Prisca Thevenot, MP representing the presidential party Renaissance, tweeted, “Getting around by bike is good for the planet, but in the Paris you manage, it is mainly dangerous for our lives”. But Anne Hidalgo doesn’t give up on her two-wheeled dream, looking for solutions to appease enraged Parisians. On July 6, the Paris Council will vote on so-called rules of the road, touted by Anne Hidalgo, regulating problematic traffic in the city. The concept includes, for example, a 10-hour program for children aged 6-11, intended to teach them how to ride a bike regarding road safety.
And yet, the idea doesn’t get much press since hardly anyone believes it will be effective. Police municipal already began carrying out road checks on the bike lanes along the main streets of Paris, but the outcome is still not palpable. Moreover, overall security in the city has gone downhill in recent years. The police can’t handle other problems exceeding fining small drug dealers that have already reached a dangerously large scale. Among many others, thefts, sexual assaults, drink spiking, and rapes. Patrols to ensure protection, especially at night, are non-existent. If the city can’t crack down on these issues, the proposed solution of rules of the road is nothing else than wishful thinking. Or at least, nobody expects more.
Anne Hidalgo’s bet on two-wheelers will likely turn out to be a lost one, placing the Paris mayor in a deadlock. Climate change is a serious concern, and Paris is one of the cities prone to suffer most from the upcoming heatwaves, and its inhabitants are mindful of this fact. But at the same time, Parisians refuse to compromise their safety to lessen carbon emissions, no matter how beautifully Anne Hidalgo praises bikes. Even sacrificing electric scooters won’t help to save the image of other single-track vehicles unless the Paris mayor makes progress by achieving tangible results. The problem, however, is that in chaos-driven Paris, such an ambitious task may not be feasible.
Paris can and should be green, but it requires much more money and time, which does not transform into immediate spectacular results. The side effect is that Anne Hidalgo’s ineptitude in organizing Parisian traffic turns into negative opinions on making cities sustainable and socialist politicians in general. It fuels so-called Hidalgo bashing in which the Paris mayor’s opponents discredit the Paris mayor’s plans, adding other problems that have been consuming the French capital for a long time. Perhaps, Anne Hidalgo miscalculated and has taken overly ambitious plans without starting with tackling more pressing problems of Parisians, such as growing crime and traffic regulations, but at the same time, this does not change the fact that we will sooner or later have to face the need to change our lifestyle, and a politician sensitive to social issues and creating a city based on community values will only be a blessing for the French capital, even if it’s not Anne Hidalgo.
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