France has seen a rapid uptick in the use of bicycles: the number of bicycle trips in 2021 was 28% higher than in 2019, and sales of e-bikes increased by 29% between 2019 and 2020.
High fuel prices, the pandemic and climate concerns all contribute to a new-found vélo love, but so do policy efforts. In 2018, the French government introduced 'Le Plan vélo' to boost cycling to 9% of all daily trips by 2024 — not just through financial incentives for consumers but by creating more and safer bike lanes and tackling bicycle theft.
There's a huge potential to lower emissions since 60% of home-work journeys of less than 5 km are made by car and just 5% by bicycle. As Reasons to be Cheerful reported on the findings of a recent study, "If the entire world pedaled as much as the Dutch do, global carbon emissions would fall by nearly 700 million tonnes per year. That's more than Canada's entire carbon footprint."
