Publication — Right-wing Votes Relate to Delays in Bicycle Network Development
Paris announced back in 2021 the “Plan Vélo 2021-2026”, an ambitious bicycle plan including 182 km of new bicycle lanes. But since then, less than half of what was promised has been built. What is influencing those delays?
Michael Szell and I published in Transport Findings an article with the self-explanatory title “Right-wing Votes Relate to Delays in Bicycle Network Development”: https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.163938
As shown in the figure below, there is a strong correlation between the right-wing vote share at the 2020 municipal election and delays in the bicycle network development. This relationship is stronger than factors like income, age, or commuting modal share.
While correlation is obviously not causation and there could be many other influencing factors, this strong and statistically significant relationship in a context where cycling is a polarizing political topic raises important questions. Delays in cycling infrastructure are not only detrimental locally but also hurt the global connectivity of the network. This in turn can have far-reaching consequences on cycling uptake and its numerous benefits for the climate, the economy, and public health. As such, understanding and fixing the bottlenecks for the development of cycling is urgently needed.
A special thanks to Paris en Selle, the local cycling advocacy of Paris, who tracked the progress of the bicycle plans of Paris through time and published openly their data, as without their dedication this work would not have been possible.