London and Paris: A Tale of Two Cities

STORY: LONDON CYCLIST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2024

London and Paris — two beautiful cities, just 300 miles apart, sharing so many historical links and, generally, progressive attitudes. 

In the last 10 to 15 years both cities have been addressing interwoven issues around climate action, air quality, transport infrastructure and improvements to the public realm. Cycling has been at the forefront of changes, with cyclist numbers at levels not seen since before WW2. How has Paris changed so much, so fast, and what can we learn from each other…?

Demographics and size

Hard to compare as both have a number of different boundaries radiating from the central area. The city of Paris, the area within the Boulevard Périphérique, is right in the centre; then there’s ‘Grand Paris’ (Métropole du Grand Paris), a recently created local authority that includes most of the urban landscape around Paris; and finally there’s the Region, Île-de-France, that is even larger and comprises many rural areas.

With its 8.9 million inhabitants, the Greater London area is perhaps best compared with Grand Paris and its population of 7 million. However, even with a very broadly comparable number of residents, it should be noted that Grand Paris is considerably smaller than London — 814km², compared to 1569km² — about half the size. The city of Paris itself is even more densely inhabited, with 2.1 million people living across its 105km².

Modal share

In Paris, private cars are used for 12% of all trips (4% in Paris city centre), while walking accounts for 52%, and public transport nearly a third. These figures differ greatly when looking at the Region, with most suburb-to-suburb journeys being taken by car — across Île-de-France car and motorbike trips represent 35% of trips.

In London, as of December 2023, cycling and walking trips are on the rise, private vehicle journeys are declining, and public transport growing back to pre-Covid levels. Cycle trips increased by 258% from 2000 to 2019, and estimates for 2022 show cycle and walk mode shares remaining higher than before the pandemic. Walking is at 27%, cycling at 4.5%, public transport at 31% and private transport at 38%. The mayor’s aim is for 80% of trips to be made by walking, cycling and public transport by 2041.

Density and architecture

Most of Paris city and its nearest suburbs are densely built, with higher buildings, and often narrower streets. Away from the tourist hubs of central Paris, you can see that, on average, street space between buildings is much smaller and narrower than in London, so how that limited space is allocated is very important. With a very high population density, trips taken by people living within Paris city, and also within Grand Paris, tend to be very short — which means for most people getting to a shop or any form of local amenity is within walking distance. That doesn’t mean Paris is already a ’15-minute city’, certainly much less so in the suburbs, but when comparing with central London boroughs (apart from the City), there’s a clear difference.

In contrast, much of London is much less dense: vast areas of London are covered with terraced housing and two-way streets, usually with two sets of parking lanes.

Car ownership

In London, central boroughs have the lowest motoring rates with only 23% in the City, and 34% in Islington and Tower Hamlets. Yet 69% of households in outer London have access to, or own, at least one car or van, compared to 42% in inner London.

In Paris city, only 33.5% of households own a car. In some part this explains why it’s been easier for the elected leader to implement such aggressive policies on car parking space reduction: most of its voters do not own a car. But the figures rise to 64.5% for Grand Paris, and as much as 83% for the whole Ile-de-France.

Driver charging

Being in the EU means France has to abide by European health regulation and in 2018 France was asked by the European Commission to implement ambitious policies to reduce air pollution. One of these measures should have been the ZFE (zone à faibles émissions, literally ‘low emission zone’). The French State has been condemned by its own supreme court for not abiding by its own regulation regularly since 2021, and yet ZFEs that were due to be implemented in the 11 most polluted urban areas are still not really in place. Continued protests by the gilets jaunes movement is one of the key reasons for this hesitancy and delay by the State. Grand Paris is still supposed to ban old and polluting motor vehicles from January 2025 (after many postponements). However, there’s still no agreement on how this ban is going to be enforced and most commentators believe it’s going to be postponed again.

It’s the total opposite in London, where ULEZ has been a locally initiated policy, fully endorsed by the mayor — and widely supported by Londoners as shown this May as Khan increased his mandate and won a record third term in office. In Paris and its surrounds, such policy support is required by the State. So as London has its congestion charge and expanded ULEZ, Paris hasn’t left the starting blocks.

Cost of public transport

A London Underground Zone 1 single fare costs £2.70, while a monthly Zones 1-6 travelcard in London costs £299.60 (or £427.40 for Zones 1-9, a more accurate comparison of relative area covered).

In Paris a T+ ticket costs the equivalent of £1.50-£1.85. But at least 2.1 million people in Paris use a ‘passe Navigo’ throughout the year; for €88 per month, they can travel unlimited across the whole Region (Île-de-France) and for employees half of the monthly fee is paid by their company.

Cycle network

Transport for London says the Cycleway network — which includes routes that are mostly, but not continuously segregated or protected from vehicles — has grown from 90km in 2016 to 400km now. That total doesn’t include smaller, local routes, those in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, mini-Holland schemes and other traffic-calmed areas, which are far more difficult to calculate.

Meanwhile, as the second part of its Plan Vélo (2021-2026) — from a total €250 million investment in cycling — Paris will gain 180km of new protected cycle lanes. 52km of these will convert temporary pandemic lanes into permanent ones. On top of this the plan is to develop 450km of streets as two-way for cycling, of which 60km have already been finished. So Paris will have roughly 300km of safe cycleways by the project’s completion, with a network of about 1,000km of ‘cyclable streets’ across the wider region.

Administrative layers

Overseeing each city is a Mayor and a team of deputies. While not everything in Paris is plain sailing in terms of administration, the key difference is that the mayor has control of all the roads and public spaces. In London, the Mayor and TfL are responsible for just 5% of the Transport for London Road Network — approximately 590km of the 14,790km roads in London.

The future

Both cities have done great work on cycling and active travel over the last decade. While Paris has nudged ahead on some fronts, London has led on others — and what we see on the ground today is something we’d only previously seen in leading cycling cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Here’s to much more still to come…

This article was originally published in London Cyclist summer 2024, London Cycling Campaign’s exclusive member’s magazine. Join as a member today for quarterly copies of London Cyclist delivered to your door, free legal advice, discounts in independent bike shops across London, and much more…