Emmanuel Gregoire, elected in March, pledges a thousand more car-free streets and a dozen new parks in a city whose bike lanes have already grown from 700 to 1,678 kilometres
The War On The Horn
PARIS. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, the Socialist who won the March election, has promised 1,000 new pedestrian streets and a dozen new parks, according to France Today on what’s new in Paris in 2026. Six major squares are slated for greening, including the Place du Trocadero and the Place d’Italie, and the Place de la Republique is due for a major greening and pedestrianisation project. The city’s bike lanes reached 1,678 kilometres as of March 1, 2026, up from 700 in 2013. France Today also reports that air quality has improved and traffic noise has dropped in areas including the Marais, the Bastille, the Champs-Elysees and the Rue de Rivoli.
A thousand pedestrian streets is a bold figure. For some Parisian drivers, it is also a terrifying one, suggesting a future in which the car becomes something like the horse-drawn carriage: a charming historical curiosity, wheeled out for weddings and films.
Drivers Adapt
A taxi driver who has worked in Paris for 25 years said he was taking the news philosophically. When I started, he said, I could drive from Bastille to Etoile in fifteen minutes. Now there are bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian zones and a garden where my favourite shortcut used to be. Soon I will need a map just to find a street where I am allowed to exist. Maybe I will become a cycling taxi. Pedalling tourists up Montmartre. My legs will be enormous.
A delivery driver in the 11th arrondissement was more direct. A thousand pedestrian streets, he said. Very nice for people walking. But who brings them their sofas? I cannot carry a sofa on a bicycle. I tried once. It did not end well for the sofa.
The Cyclists Rejoice
Cyclists, by contrast, greeted the promise with enthusiasm. Paris has transformed itself over the past decade into a city where bicycles are a major means of transport. A cycling commuter who rides from Montreuil to the 8th arrondissement every day said the change had been extraordinary. Ten years ago, cycling in Paris was an extreme sport, she said. Now it is merely a competitive one. The danger is no longer cars. It is other cyclists, especially the ones on electric bikes who think they are in the Tour de France.
Pedestrian Paris
Supporters of pedestrianisation argue that it makes the city calmer, cleaner and friendlier for residents, shops and visitors. Critics worry about congestion on remaining roads, access for deliveries and people with reduced mobility, and the impact on suburban commuters. An urban planner said the debate was as old as Haussmann. Every great change to Paris is hated first and loved later, he said. The boulevards were hated. The metro was hated. The bike lanes were hated. In twenty years, people will say: do you remember when cars drove on the Rue de Rivoli? And the young people will not believe them.
The Parisian Pedestrian
Pedestrianisation also brings its own challenges, beginning with the Parisian pedestrian, who walks fast, never yields and regards tourists stopping to look at their phones as a form of terrorism. A sociologist who studies urban behaviour warned that more pedestrian streets might create new conflicts. When you remove cars, she said, Parisians do not become peaceful. They simply redirect their anger toward people walking slowly. Every pedestrian street will need a fast lane.
The Last Word
On the newly quiet Rue de Rivoli, a man in a suit stood beside a bike lane looking slightly lost. A passer-by asked if he needed help. I used to drive to work along here every day, the man said. Now I walk. He paused. It takes forty minutes longer, he admitted. But I have discovered a bakery I never knew existed. Then he held up a paper bag. And to be honest, he said, the croissants are worth the forty minutes.