Paris wants to become the world capital of cycling. The French capital's ambitious project has drawn accolades from all around the planet but pro-cycling measures and policies have been slowly spreading all around France -- like in the host city of Velo-city 2015, Nantes --, perspective from the French ECF staff.

Flickr/Fernando Mandujano

Copenhagen and Amsterdam need to watch out. The threat has been sent, the target is locked. Paris is to become the world cycling capital of cycling according to the city's leadership and it became official on Monday  (April 13^th): it is on paper, it is already voted on.

Paris sera toujours Paris

Strasbourg is historically the most cycling friendly French city but more recently Bordeaux or Nantes have been successfully developing pro-cycling measures, yet Paris launches its cycling plan and the French, international media are overloaded with the story (examples here here here or here). The details of doubling cycling lanes, going from 5 to 15 percent modal share in 5 years or the 10,000 bike parking spaces are explained, listed and praised all over the world.

As well as with bike sharing in 2007 Paris is not reinventing the wheel (the Velib system is the exact copy of Velo’V in Lyon which was launched in 2005).  The capital can count on the expertise slowly gained in the rest of the country for several years. Cycling is hot in France, Paris is just the top of the iceberg.

One place to meet them all

France is not Denmark or the Netherlands and we probably can wait for a couple of years before France hits the podium of ECF cycling barometer (2015 edition to be published before June, stay tuned). However bike sharing systems like Velib have spread from country by country (to reach an impressive 1 million bike shared worldwide this year) and we can be optimistic about pro-cycling policies in cities all over the world.

France and Paris aims big in cycling and the next Velo-city conference points to this direction too which will be held in Nantes, France. It is been organised by French people who have done an amazing job in bringing all cycling stakeholders of the country together. Whether you are interested in cycling development in France or from all over the planet, your sweet tooth will be satisfied this June.

About the author

Chloé Mispelon is a Communications Officer at ECF, when not behind her computer in Brussels making sure ecf.com is up-to-date, she goes out on two wheels taking pictures of the cycling world. And yes, she is French...