Paris is to increase the number of protected cycleways in the city as well as boost bicycle parking spaces, reveals the 2021-2026 cycling plan published October 21 and billed as Plan Velo: Act 2.
(Plan Velo is the existing, $174 million cycling plan which has been getting bolder and bolder with each update.)
The desire is to make the French capital—not that long ago a city that was toxic for everyday cycling—into a “100% cyclable city.”
As well as the creation of extra facilities for cyclists the new $290 million plan also pledges to maintain them with promises of “cleaning and snow removal from cycle paths.”
Cycle parking in the city will be significantly increased at the same time as car parking spaces are removed.
Paris is already in the process of removing more than 70% of its on-street car parking spaces.

Oct 24, 2021
There are 1.2 billion cars on the planet. Should we try and replace them all with electric,

Peter Walker Sun 24 Oct 2021

Labour has criticised Rishi Sunak for “lots of announcements and not much delivery” on infrastructure projects, as the chancellor conceded that of £7bn in this week’s budget for expanding regional transport links, only £1.5bn is new money.
The chancellor said the metro mayors Andy Street and Andy Burnham had welcomed the announcements. “So what the money announced yesterday was about is about what we call intracity transportation, that’s about how do we get people who live in and around a city to be able to get into the middle of it and out again easily,” he said.
Challenged on how much of the £7bn for this was new, Sunak said he had already announced £4.2bn for the “overall envelope for improve how people get around our big cities … What we’ve actually done is top that up, as you said, by £1.5bn, but then crucially give out the allocations in that envelope – where all the bits are going to go.”

There are also London-wide Low Emission and Direct Vision standards for larger vehicles inside the M25. If the driver of a large vehicle enters London without matching either of these standards they face steep fines.
What is changing?
ULEZ is expanding on 25 October to a much bigger area, going up to, but not including, the North and South Circular roads.

Map fans fill your boots:

PARIS, April 11 (Reuters) – France is offering the owners of old, exhaust-belching cars the opportunity to hand over their vehicles for scrap in return for a 2,500 euro ($2,975.00) grant to buy an electric bicycle.
Lawmakers in the National Assembly have just approved the measure in a preliminary vote. It was an amendment to a draft climate bill passing through parliament that aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels.
If adopted, France will become the first country in the world to offer people the chance to trade in an ageing vehicle for an electric or folding bicycle, the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB) said.
“For the first time it is recognised that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” said Olivier Schneider of the FUB.

“But this strategy,” Johnson continued in trademark-style, “shows how we can build back greener, without so much as a hair shirt in sight.”

The U.K. government’s strategy pins many hopes on the electrification of the U.K.’s 40 million registered motor vehicles.
“In 2050, we will still be driving cars,” said Johnson, “but they will be electric gliding silently around our cities.”
The first point featured in the press release announcing the strategy is car-focussed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re going further and faster than ever to tackle climate change. Our plans for an ambitious zero emission vehicle mandate show that we’re leading the world on the switch to EVs.”