The French Connection
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Under the leadership of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the city of Paris has transformed itself, turning streets that were once clogged with cars into places for people on bikes and on foot. In response to the pandemic, the city quickly installed "coronapistes," temporary bike lanes designed to help Parisians move around safely. (With Hidalgo's recent re-election, approximately 30 miles are now slated to become permanent.) To learn more, Sarah speaks with Deputy Mayor Christophe Najdovski, who's in charge of the city's initiatives to increase green space and biodiversity and previously served as the deputy mayor for transportation. Najdovski explains that while the changes in the French capital are the envy of people all over the world, they haven't been without their share of controversy. Nevertheless, Hidalgo's political will and persistence have paid off. Paris now has cleaner air, less noise, more public space and a balance of street users that is shifting toward women. Plus, we hear an update from friend of the War on Cars and Paris resident, Cécile!
SHOW NOTES:
Will the bicycle be the vehicle of the 21st century for Parisians? (France 24)
Paris' temporary bike lanes to become permanent. (France 24)
Paris to cut car parking in half. (Forbes)
Bike theft is up as Parisians take to their vélos. (Bloomberg CityLab)
Actor and singer Yves Montand performs the song, "La Bicyclette"
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This episode was produced by Sarah Goodyear and edited by Ali Lemer.
Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.
Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D.
Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, Doug here. |
| 0:03.0 | This episode of The War on Cars is sponsored by Cleverhood, which makes great rain deer and |
| 0:08.4 | outerware for people who walk and bike. |
| 0:11.0 | Now I was hoping I could stroll around my neighborhood in the rain to demonstrate just |
| 0:14.6 | how awesome the new Clever Hood Rover Rain Cake is. Unfortunately, we haven't had any rain lately, so... lately so yeah I am standing in my shower and yeah oh wow this is great. I am staying totally dry. It's really comfortable. |
| 0:36.4 | And the best thing is my microphone is not getting wet. So check it out. |
| 0:41.5 | Listeners of the War on Cars can now receive 20% off the purchase of anything in the |
| 0:46.4 | Cleverhood store. |
| 0:47.9 | Just visit cleverhood.com slash War on Cars. |
| 0:51.5 | Enter code War on Cars, all one word, and get your 20% off. |
| 0:56.0 | Again, that's Cleverhood.com slash War on Cars. |
| 1:00.0 | Enjoy the episode. Hello and welcome to the war on cars. This is Sarah Goodyear. Maybe it's just |
| 1:16.8 | pandemic claustrophobia and the absolute meltdown that's happening |
| 1:20.1 | across every aspect of American society, but lately I've been thinking a lot about Paris. |
| 1:27.0 | A la Paris, Paris, Le Croissant, L'A tour refont, the tour and fern, |
| 1:34.0 | the moor. |
| 1:36.0 | When we're part of my time, |
| 1:38.0 | how to parte on the Shema. |
| 1:40.0 | The hundreds of miles of miles of bike lanes are the |
| 1:47.1 | Manifique. Okay hold up this is not Emily in Paris. We don't want to get carried away with some kind of |
| 1:54.5 | rose-colored view of the city of light. Paris has plenty of problems. Transport strikes, police |
| 2:00.2 | brutality, not to mention a surge in bike theft since the pandemic made getting around |
... |
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