Where: Avenue d'Italie, Paris, France
When: April 2007
What: Street redesigned in 1997 from a 6-lane arterial to a 4-lane boulevard with cycle tracks (protected bike lanes), wider sidewalks, and pedestrian refuges at the center of the street at crosswalks.
Comment: Although I woke up to jackhammers for at least 6 months during construction, the design of the street is much more inviting, and allowed double rows of trees on each sidewalk. Before this redesign, I'd never personally seen cycle tracks before. To my knowledge, I never heard of people complaining about the reduced traffic lanes, somewhat reduced parking and the need for people parking to walk over a bike lane to get to their cars.
Related Posts: In a Polk Street World with protected bike lanes, Street Design of Valencia Street
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| Avenue d'Italie in Paris. Looking south from east sidewalk, just south of Place d'Italie. The shopping mall Italie 2 is on the far side of the street, along with several residential towers. |
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| Closeup of wayfinding sign, granite sidewalk area near curb, and cycle track for bikes. |
Here's the Google Streetview version of the same place.
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| Looking south on Avenue d'Italie from Google Streetview. Note double tree lining left sidewalk. Also note bus stop is in parking lane, effectively as a bus bulb. Image: Google Street View |
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| Looking to the north towards Place d'Italie. Note the wide sidewalk with a ~1m (3.2 feet) refuge in the middle of the street. Image: Google Street View |
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| Closeup of previous image. Note the yellow blinking lights indicating vehicle traffic may pass through (slowly). Also note the 2-3 people in median refuge (left), the 4 people crossing anyway (center), 2 people who have scooted out on the crosswalk(center right), but not into the vehicle pathways, and the 4 or 5 people waiting for the crosswalk (right). Image: Google Street View |
You can find the location of the images on
this map.
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