Biking in Paris: Bike Lanes, Bikeshare, and Bike Culture in France

Biking in Paris can be a fun and rewarding way to see the city from a new perspective and search for the best French croissants & pastries. As you bike through each arrondissement and across each bridge more romantic than the last, you can feel the life of Paris. Paris is turning more and more places into car-free spaces, and riding along the Seine is one of those places now reserved for stroll, a picnic, an aperitif, or a cycle close to the iconic sights. It’s also a great commute path! I loved experiencing Paris by bike, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

bicycles, cyclists, pedestrians, people walking, and more along the path of the seine. One guy riding a bicycle in a suit. — The path right along the Seine has bikes and pedestrians enjoying it all day long (and all night).

People riding Velib bicycles (both the e-assist and mechanical) next to the Seine with a few of the Eiffel tower in the background. — Another place along the Seine path with the Eiffel tower as a backdrop!

Lots of bicycles parked on the street. Someone riding a JUMP bike bikeshare, and another bike with a father and 2 children in child seats on the back of the bike! — Bike parking in the 4th arrondissement near the Louvre. The bikes are here to stay, and more are coming!

One thing I realized while biking around Paris is that the drivers and other vehicles are much more respectful to you in general. You’re not seen as an outsider in the way, but just part of the city, a fact of life in Paris, and not someone to honk at angrily. I might not have caught the worst traffic jams, but I felt comfortable riding through most smaller streets with vehicles nearby because I knew they were watching out for bicycles.

More Bike Lanes are Coming

A long beautiful, tree-lined two-way bike path next to a canal that connects from inside Paris to Bobigny to the east. — Sidewalk level two-way bike lanes along the canal in the 19th arrondissement.

While the drivers were respectful to bikes, I do wish that there was less conflict in general. The infrastructure is incomplete in some places and can test your patience and confidence, but the current mayor is serious about changes, and things are being developed fast.

It’s very odd feeling so comfortable when most of the infrastructure is piecemeal. While great when it exists, the bike infra is mostly paint on the ground. Paris really must get its act together to truly connect some of the safe bike routes. Even looking at the bike lanes on Google Maps leaves you scratching your head…

A screenshot of Google Maps showing some scattered bike lanes around Paris — While there is lots of solid green (dedicated bike lanes), there are also lots of bike lanes that seem to go for only 1 or 2 blocks and not connect to anything. That’s really not very useful. You can also see how some of the longer paths have weird breaks in them. Sometimes this is due to bad data on Google Maps part.

You can see many bike lanes that are only a few blocks long. A bike lane in isolation doesn’t help to connect the city very well. Google Maps is also not great at keeping the bike lane data up-to-date, as I discovered a lot of streets that didn’t show a bike lane on the map, but had one in real life. For example, the city finished a new fully protected two way bike lane on Rue de Rivoli (that goes right next to the famous Louvre), but months later it’s still just a dotted green line on Google Maps indicating it’s just a bike-friendly street, and not a dedicated bike lane.

Two people riding side by side in the new two-way bike lane on Rue De Rivoli, a main artery through Paris. This bike lane is very wide you could almost fit 2 small cars through it. — The new two-way bike lane on Rue De Rivoli with plenty of space for bikes! I love these wide bike lanes so you can talk to your friends on the journey.

Previously, Rue de Rivoli had a protected bus/taxi lane that it shared with the bicycles. This is less than ideal, as there is just enough space for a bus to uncomfortably pass a bicycle if you’re not taking the lane, and the bus can’t go out into traffic to give more room. It was awkward, but in general the bus drivers were respectful. They still have this type of infrastructure on other streets in Paris, but they’re being replaced over time.

Someone riding in a bike and bus lane in Paris. A bus is far behind the bicycle (because bikes are faster than buses of course...just kidding!) — A bike + bus lane on Boulevard de Sébastopol between the 2nd & 3rd arrondissement. This one is not protected in this section, but you can see how it’s not great when the bus needs to pass.

Fortunately, more and more streets are getting new bike lanes, and this is why Paris currently ranks #8 in the 2019 Copenhegenize Bike Index. I’m looking forward to seeing more connected bike routes and car-free streets when I visit Paris again.

Even with all of this progress, riding a bike in Paris still can be intense on some routes. Back riding in San Francisco, I felt even more confident and comfortable riding around town after learning to live with the bike lanes in Paris. Maybe Paris can be a gateway bike commuting city to make you feel more confident and less fearful of riding a bike in your own hometown! If you’re looking for more basic bike commuting knowledge, check out my left turn post and how to avoid obstacles.

A protected bike lane in between the sidewalk and a bus landing where people can wait or the bus. — A great protected bike lane in the 11th arrondissement!

The Paris Contraflow Bike Infrastructure

Someone riding their bicycle in a contraflow bike lane going opposite of car traffic. You can see the lane going in the distance. — Look at the dedicated space for bicycles to go the other way! It’s small, but at least it exists.

One of the most interesting types of bike infrastructure I saw in Paris was the contraflow lane. I’ve seen it in cities before, but in Paris it was EVERYWHERE. The contraflow bike infrastructure is where bicycles go the opposite way of normal traffic on the same street.

Since so many streets are very narrow, they’re one-way for cars, but two-way for bikes! The bikes can go in the car lane, and in the contraflow lane. Every street is two-way for bikes, with a little symbol on the ground showing that the bike can be on the right side while the car and other bicycles go the opposite direction. Sometimes this means for a tight squeeze when there’s a larger car coming through, but everyone slows down and makes it work.

I often used the symbols as a pedestrian to know which way the cars were coming from (always opposite of the bike arrow!) and to be reminded to look both ways for bicycles. You’ll notice that these symbols are always right next to crosswalks and through intersections, probably as much for the road users as for the pedestrians!

I felt even better riding the opposite flow of traffic than with the cars, because it was easier to make eye contact and see exactly where all the traffic was. If I was on a road like this biking the same direction as car traffic, I preferred to take the lane and make the cars behind me wait until I felt it safe for them to pass.

In my research, I found an old post discussing contraflow bike lanes with some more information if you’re interested. And if you really want to nerd out here’s a lengthy document about contraflow cycling by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

Someone riding their bicycle in a contraflow bike lane going opposite of car traffic. This one has a bigger car in the lane. — Some streets were narrower than this one and still had a contraflow. A few I kinda stopped near the curb to let a car pass, but everyone slowed down.

Bikeshare in Paris: Vélib’ & JUMP

During this trip, I exclusively used bikeshare to get around Paris by bike. I used the Vélib’ docked bikeshare system (with e-assist & normal bikes) as well as the JUMP bikes (always e-assist) that could be found around the city. Honestly, it was a bit tough to find functional bikes sometimes, but I can only see things getting better.

If I lived in Paris or was in Paris for a longer period of time, I’d find a used bike and get a good bike lock and other security gear to have a bike that’s more reliable. With your own bike, you can also have nice storage options with bike panniers or sacoches de vélo as they say in French. Anyhow, back to bikeshare…

A Velib bikeshare station with some mechanical bikes parked in it. — A Vélib’ bikeshare dock with a bunch of mechanical (non e-assist bikes). The bikes are a green color, whereas the e-bikes are a more turquoise color as you can see in the photo below.

Availability & Prices

The JUMP bikes were a bit more convenient because I could drop them of right in front of my destination, but sometimes it was harder to find them as I describe in my bikeshare reviews. The Vélib’ is significantly cheaper than the JUMP bikes, and if my destination was near Vélib’ docks it was great.

The Vélib’ had just 24 hour or 7 day passes. It was a bit annoying that they had nothing in between, because I was in Paris for about 4 days, then in Nice for a week, then Paris another 3 days, so I had to just get 24 hour passes whenever I needed them. When buying a pass it was convenient to get multiple bikes on one reservation if you’re traveling with other people, and I found that I could immediately take out another bike after docking one (useful if the bike you have isn’t working right).

The JUMP bikes charged for every ride depending on the duration, and one long ride on the JUMP bike could easily be as much as an entire 24 hour pass with the Vélib’, so it’s definitely more economical to just go with the Vélib’!

Difficulty Finding Good Bikes

Unfortunately, the bikeshare situation in Paris is a little messy right now. The Vélib’ changed ownership in 2018, and is still recovering from the disastrous overhaul of the bicycles. The new bikes rolled out in 2018 were not as sturdy as the old ones, so they break down more easily. Although the new system is getting better, I still encountered lots of broken bikes. The annoying thing is that sometimes there would be just a small thing that was broken. Maybe the gears didn’t work so you were always in the lowest gear, which prevents you from going a normal speed. Maybe the seat would be loose. Some bikes didn’t let me rent the bike at all.

A Velib' bikeshare station with lots of electric and mechanical bikes parked. Many of them have seats turned around to indicate they're broken. — An unfortunate sight to see with a bikeshare station full of broken bikes. A seat turned backwards means the bike is broken, but then you can see one of the bikes has a seat that’s almost falling off! You can also clearly see the electric turquoise bikes and the mechanical green bikes.

The JUMP bikes were unfortunately not that much better. One of them I rented had a broken electric motor, so it would only turn on if you pushed on the pedal REALLY hard, therefore negating any benefit of the e-bike and making it just a heavy bike. Plus, many of the bikes couldn’t be rented with an error on the app that didn’t say what was wrong. I’m not sure if the app was broken or if there were just so many broken bikes around that half of the ones I tried to rent were in maintenance mode.

Being the bike nerd that I am, I persevered through all these issues and eventually found bikes that worked well enough to get around. Once on the bike, the feeling of bliss that overcomes me makes it all worth it.

Taking a Scooter in Paris

While I prefer taking the bicycles around because of more control and many other factors, sometimes you just want to take what’s nearby you! And one thing about the scooters is that there seems to be less parts to break, while a bike can have a multitude of small things broken on it that hamper the experience. If the app lets you rent an e-scooter, it will probably work fine.

Someone wearing a suit, riding a JUMP Scooter on the sidewalk in front of the Louvre at sunset. — Suit flying in the wind in front of Le Louvre.

One nice thing about the scooters is that you can ride two-up with two people on one scooter! I’m sure the companies renting these things out don’t want you to do that, but as a generally lightweight person, I was able to do it with another light person with few problems. It’s difficult to control at slow speeds and when taking off and stopping, but I was surprised at how easy it was to control even with 2 people once I took off. Of course, do this at your own risk! Some of the curb edges in Paris are dangerous to go over already with the small wheeled e-scooters, so be careful.

Two people riding on one lime scooter in Paris. The driver is in front and the passenger is behind putting their arms under the driver's arms and holding on to the center of the handlebars. — A common sight to see people two-up on a scooter in Paris. I tried it where the passenger is in front of the driver, but it looks like this way works too!

Conclusion of Biking in Paris, France

Riding a bicycle in Paris is a great way to see the city, and I hope this gives you some insight so you can enjoy it as much as I did! If you enjoy reading posts like these, don’t forget to subscribe for e-mails when a new one comes out! And maybe think about signing up as a Patron or donating at the bottom of the page.

Happy Biking!