Paris, once the poster child for car-clogged boulevards and endless honking, is now rewriting the story of urban mobility—on two wheels. This September, the city broke yet another series of cycling records, underscoring what many residents already feel in their daily commute: Paris à vélo has officially become the new normal.
On Sept. 9, according to a social media post from deputy mayor David Belliard, the city logged 21,817 bicycles on Boulevard du Palais—a route that only opened two years ago—alongside 15,549 on Boulevard Saint-Michel and 15,412 on Avenue de Clichy.
“It’s the result of choices that we have made,” Belliard wrote in a celebratory post on LinkedIn. “To make public spaces safer, more breathable, more pleasant, and to offer everyone the freedom to move around other than by private car.”
It’s a statement that sums up a decade of transformation. Paris has been steadily rolling out protected cycleways, redesigning intersections, and removing lanes of car traffic to make space for bikes and pedestrians. At times, those changes have sparked fierce debate—particularly among drivers and business owners who worried the city was pushing too far, too fast. But if the data is any indication, the gamble has paid off.
Even before the fall surge, summer 2025 saw all-time highs: 21,000 bikes on Rue de Rivoli and 26,000 on Boulevard de Sébastopol in a single day. That’s roughly one bicycle passing every three seconds, day and night. It’s an astonishing image—proof that Paris’s “Plan Vélo” has achieved what many thought impossible in a city once dominated by traffic jams and exhaust fumes.
Critics used to call the cycling lanes “too wide,” “too numerous,” or a “war on cars.” But as Belliard noted with characteristic Parisian wit, “Paris by bike, it works—or rather, it rolls.”
Rue de Rivoli in Paris, circa 2020
The city’s cycling renaissance didn’t happen overnight. Paris’s momentum began in earnest under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose administration made cycling a central pillar of the fight against climate change and urban pollution. Belliard, the city’s Maire-adjoint à la transformation de l’espace public et aux mobilités, has been at the heart of this effort for 10 years, guiding a transformation that has reshaped not only traffic patterns but also the identity of the French capital itself.
“Less pollution, less noise, more health, more freedom,” Belliard says—each phrase reflecting the broader social vision behind the infrastructure: to make city life more humane and sustainable.
And, it is Belliard who hopes to take Hidalgo’s place as mayor in the next election, following the outgoing mayor’s decision to retire from politics.
And the results of the investments Paris has made are tangible.
Air quality has improved dramatically, traffic injuries have declined, and the number of Parisians who identify as daily cyclists continues to climb. The humble bicycle, once seen as a niche mode of transport or a tourist’s plaything, has become the city’s defining mobility symbol.
And as Belliard reminds us, this isn’t the end of the journey. “This transformation has only just begun,” he says. “It’s up to you.”