The episode in detail
1818: the draisine arrives in Paris
The history of cycling in Paris begins in 1818 with the first demonstration of the draisine, an invention by the German Karl von Drais created in 1817. Drais chose Paris for its international visibility and for how quickly the French administration issued patents, whereas Austria was slower. Between 3,000 and 4,000 spectators watched the demonstrations around the Jardin du Luxembourg. Clément Dusong, a researcher specialising in cycling use in Île-de-France and curator of the exhibition “À vélo Paris métropole 1818-2030” at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, traces this fascinating history.
The draisine is not a bicycle: no pedals, no transmission, just two wheels in line connected by a wooden beam. You push yourself along with your feet.
From the pedal to the penny-farthing: the 1860s and 1870s
In the 1860s, the pedal was invented, fixed directly to the hub of the front wheel, with no freewheel. The Parisian Michaux family popularised this pedal velocipede, notably at the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris. Since the pedal was fixed to the front wheel, the logic was to enlarge that wheel’s diameter to cover more distance per turn. The penny-farthing appeared in the 1870s: spectacular, dangerous, reserved for sporty men.
“The penny-farthing was extremely dangerous. Getting on and off was quite an ordeal.”
The revolution came with the invention of the chain drive by a Briton: wheels of equal size returned, with a set of sprockets. These bicycles were named “bicyclettes de sécurité” (safety bicycles) in French, the diminutive suffix “-ette” marking how small they were compared with the penny-farthing.
From bourgeois leisure to popular democratisation
By the end of the 19th century, a bicycle cost the equivalent of 7,000 euros today. The activity remained confined to bourgeois circles: doctors, lawyers, residents of central districts who discovered cycle touring towards the Bois de Boulogne. Everything changed between the two world wars. Industrialisation drove the price down to around 700 euros today, a tenfold drop.
“When the working classes got hold of bicycles, it became awkward for the bourgeoisie to keep riding the same bikes their servants were using.”
Social distinction logic took over: the wealthier classes moved to the car, making use of the road network that cyclists had helped to build. The bicycle became popular at the exact moment it lost its social prestige.
Cycling, a symbol of political ecology from 1974
The 1970s marked a turning point. René Dumont, the first green candidate in a French presidential election, in 1974, made the bicycle the symbol of his campaign. The bicycle became a two-sided object for political ecology: a practical means of transport and a symbol of environmental struggles.
“From the very first stirrings of political ecology, the bicycle was immediately taken up as a tool of environmental struggles and a symbol.”
The context was one of post-1968 questioning and the oil crises of 1973 and 1979. The issue was not yet climate change but energy independence. Local associations were formed (such as the DTC in Grenoble), and cycling policies emerged in Strasbourg and Grenoble before Paris. The Fédération française des usagers de la bicyclette (FUB) has seen its number of member associations grow almost exponentially since the 2010s, accelerating during Covid.
Paris 2024: a 12% modal share and a ceiling in sight
The latest survey by the Institut Paris Région puts cycling’s modal share in Paris at 12%, against just 4% for the car on trips within the city. Cycling has already overtaken the car. But one trip in two is made on foot, leaving only half of all trips for other modes.
“It’s easy to go from 1 to 5% modal share, but going from 20 to 25%, the challenge is not the same.”
Clément expects cycling’s quantitative growth in Paris to plateau. The future challenges are qualitative: developing cyclo-logistics with infrastructure suited to wider vehicles, factoring in tourist trips (poorly understood since they are absent from household travel surveys), and adapting the network to the growing variety of vehicles (cargo bikes, free-floating bikes, Vélib’).
