“2017 will be the year of the bike” says Mayor of Paris

"2017 will be the year of the bicycle," promised the Paris Mayor in a statement issued yesterday. Anne Hidalgo added: "Fewer cars means less pollution."

Cars will be banned from outside the Louvre museum, and there will be extensions made to the cycle infrastructre in the French capital. Hidalgo pledged to double the amount of cycleways in the city, including adding a new two-way cycleway which will run for four-kilometres along the Rue de Rivoli, connecting to the Place de la Bastille and Place de la Concorde.

"Climate is the number one priority," she said. While London asks those susceptible to toxic air to stay inside, Paris restricts car use instead. 

In September last year, Paris converted a road on the right bank of the river Seine into a pedestrian zone despite fierce opposition from motorists.

2017 is the two-hundredth anniversary of the bicycle.