Greg Vann tweets this update on the Paris civic election:
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Placemaking in Paris: How Politics Changed the Parisian Landscape
During Mayor Bernard Delanoë’s 13 years in City Hall, many streets were redesigned to add dedicated bus lanes. More than 400 miles of bicycle lanes were created. Since 2002 the banks of the Seine have been closed to traffic each summer and 5,000 tons of sand have been used to create a beach in the middle of the city, complete with parasols and other sea-side amenities.
In 2006 a major new tramway line was opened. In 2007 the city introduced a bikeshare program, Velib, that today has a quarter of a million subscribers and accounts for 100,000 trips a day on average. 20 mile per hour zones were created in many residential neighborhoods and new “shared spaces” were introduced in certain streets.
In 2013 the city permanently decommissioned a highway segment to create a promenade along the Seine and unveiled the redesign of Paris’s largest square, Place de la République, now largely reserved for pedestrians.
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THERE IS NO GOING BACK
The two major candidates to replace Delanoë come from very different places on the political spectrum, but neither is prepared to break with his policies regarding the quality of urban life.
Anne Hidalgo, the current Deputy Mayor who is leading in the polls to replace Delanoë, has a program in line with the accomplishments of her political mentor. She intends to continue to promote different ways of getting around, including a scootershare program and a massive increase in parking spaces for bikes. She wants to continue to increase the proportion of public space dedicated to pedestrians. …
What is more surprising is that the main Conservative candidate, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is ideologically vehemently opposed to Hidalgo on many issues, is largely in accord with the previous administration when it comes to matters of urban space. …
What this year’s electoral contest has revealed is that high quality urban places and an urban experience that favors pedestrians and diverse forms of non-motor transportation have become an electoral expectation in Paris.
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And in Vancouver?
Amen. You could add London’s conservative Mayor to the data pool too.
To beat Vision, the NPA (or other competitor) needs to out-urban Vision. There’s plenty to go after: on-street two cycle paths are dangerous at intersections, concrete barriers are ugly, arterials are car-dominated without even permanent dedicated bus lanes, huge four-way intersections are pedestrian repellant instead of attractive public squares, traffic circles lacking even painted splitter islands leave plenty psychological space for cars to speed around, the councillor with the cycling portfolio is vehemently in favour of ticketing toques, Uber was kicked out of town, cars may enter the City of Vancouver without paying a congestion charge. The overall ‘form’ (T3 to T5? to T6 everywhere?) of neighborhood growth is unclear. The zoning regulations are hugely over-complicated and use-first. Expensive traffic signals and stop signs are used, where narrowing, bulging, slowing shared space would be fine. Idaho rolling stops are illegal.
Paint, planters and pop-ups. Lets see a pro- tactical experimentation candidate, ready to redefine and reclaim public space.
Neil21, considering how much flack and opposition Vision is receiving from the public for putting in some bike lanes, do you really think Vancouverites would tolerate the type of widespread transportation system advancements that Paris is implementing? Neighbourhood associations have now united as a Coalition of Associations to threaten lawsuits in the attempt to thwart Vision each time Vision tries to make an improvement in an area. Attitudes need revamping here before the City can be radically transformed. Too bad as Vancouver certainly needs the updating.
Yes I do, with the re-election as my data. I believe the bluster is a small demographic with the time and disposable income to show up at council
Vision was re-elected by voters who didn’t care about the nuance of individual councillors (Woodsworth) but just liked the direction. “Vision equals bikelanes and the green thing, and I like that: check.” It was a pro-bikelane vote, a mandate to carry on.
Campaigning negatively against that isn’t the right strategy for an opposition mayor. Instead recognise the direction, and position your party further out in front. Use imagery from New York, Portland, Chicago, Montreal: North American cities that are doing similar things, but more beautifully.
I met a Cedar party nut the other night, and their byword seems to be ‘power to the people’. The people don’t want power. They want competent management, an optimistic vision and proof things are going that way. Lower taxes if you can manage it, but we’ll be happy with a great RO(tax)I thanks.
Yes, it certainly is a loud, obnoxious minority for whom ignorance is King. In contrast, I look forward to Vancouver finally stepping into the future. Too bad the WestKits Residents Association, for one, wants to stay rooted in the distant past.
I don’t really understand the lawsuits thing. I’m pretty sure that’s not how policy is made.
Note the word “electoral expectation”. Because it is an *expectation*, voters expect that streets be pedestrianized. It’s as if the voters *expect* x # of streets to be pedestrianized per year.
If that would happen in BC, then voters would *expect* transit to be built. We would *expect* x # of rapid transit km to be built per year. Pity it just isn’t the case; transit is more a privilege than an expectation, and until it’s an expectation, it’s always going to be off the budget.
Not all Vision proposals have been improvements. Their idea of public consultation feels like show and tell. They’ve already decided what’s going to happen and are merely giving us all a little preview. Real consultation would present more than one option and would, at least occasionally, see feedback incorporated into the final plan. I also recall more than one occasion when the NPA sounded more progressive on the issue of transit.
I really don’t know who to vote for.
Yes far more could be done in Vancouver. Baby steps here. A few bike lanes . Point Grey road closure. Car2Go. What else in the last five years ?
How about:
A) close Robson to cars.
B) charge $20 to use the following streets: W-Georgia, Granville bridge, Granville south of 16th, Burrard Bridge, Cambie street bridge, Hastings, Commercial, Denman, Davie, 10th Ave, Broadway, 4th, 16th Ave, Cordova, Hwy 1
C) no more residential through roads
D) $250 a month to park in any residential street
E) dedicated bus lane on Granville, Hastings and Broadway
Car is king today, sold as ” the greenest city on the planet”. What a joke.
I guess Paris has well past the point of the quantity promise in term of pedestrian realm, to focus on the quality of it: In fact there are real differences between the both candidates on urban issues
Seen from Vancouver, the differences could look like a bit byzantine, but as expressed by Neil21, it demonstrates, there is lot of room for a constructive opposition in Vancouver.
NKM (the challenger on the right) favors pedestrian precincts, surrounded by traffic “sewer” (Boulevard and Avenue).: pretty much the “Montmartre model” (the city is seen as a collection of village experiences)…so she favors a Taylor model of the public space on which many new town have been build in the 70’s and 80’s.
Hidalgo (from the incumbent party on the left) prefer a “shared spaces” model, and want the city to re-appropriate Avenues and Boulevard in addition of major squares as structuring element of the urban experience:
pedestrianization of major key square in Paris (such as done place de Republique) and potential pedestrianization of the widest Parisian avenue, Foch Ave (*): are consequence of this approach. (New York times square is also a model of this approach)
That has never been done at the expense of Transit, but usually an opportunity to improve it! (e.g.: buses share Place de la Republique with pedestrian): Hidalgo in fact uses the word “beautification” and explain the matter is “to reduce the negative impact of the car on the beauty of the city” in her program.
The difference in approach is in fact relatively fundamental and in many aspect reminiscent of another debate:
http://voony.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/an-avenue-in-neuilly/
The Candidates position on the Freeway belt surrounding Paris (Boulevard Peripherique): either put it all into a tube (NKM) or transform it into a urban boulevard (Hidalgo) are also fracture lines expressing both a different vision of the city.
(*): A Vancouver equivalent could be to close Cambie to traffic South of King Edward to transform in into a Greenway, but even that could not compare in magnitude and scope of the closing of the 140meters wide Foch Ave