In this episode Laura travels to Paris, to meet one of the campaigners behind a successful push to put cycling at the heart of the city's transport plans for the 2024 Olympics. Paris en Selle is one of a cohort of campaign groups who staged an 'Olympic relay' protest that inspired Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to roll out cycleways linking every one of the city's 35 Games venues. This would mean visitors and staff could get to events in a healthy, sustainable way without overwhelming the existing transport network.

What followed, within two years, was the rollout of an impressive 34 miles of routes that met, campaigners say, 90% of the brief given to city officials. Even previously reluctant boroughs, they say, were persuaded to do their part. In addition, 20,000 new cycle parking spaces, many but not all temporary, were introduced. Some cycleways are shared bus lanes, but for the most part what's been built is dedicated cycle lanes.

We would like to thank Paris en Selle's Corentin Roudaut, who used his lunch break from his day job to give Streets Ahead listeners a tour of the rapid transformation over the last two years.

Find out more about Paris en Selle's advocacy work: https://parisenselle.fr. The campaign group even produced their own guide to help Games visitors get around during the Olympics https://parisenselle.fr/2024/07/17/cycle-around-paris-during-the-olympics/

Read Laura's CityLab piece about Paris' Olympic cycling transformation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-24/paris-summer-olympics-2024-cycling-at-the-games-bike-lanes-parking-sharing

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