The sometimes painful example of the last Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has further reinforced the trend: in the race for the Games, the question of transport can prove decisive. The last three files still in the running for 2024 understand this. Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris have made it a major focus of their communication strategy.

At this stage, it is difficult to decide between the strengths of some and the weaknesses of others. It will be up to the experts of the IOC Evaluation Commission to verify for themselves, during their visit next spring, the reality of the data announced in the candidacy files. But it seems that the French capital has now taken a head start.

In mid-October, a study carried out by the very serious “Institute for Transportation and Development Policy” (ITDP), an independent and non-profit organization, looked at the quality of public transport in twenty-six of the largest cities in the world. The survey notably calculated the proportion of their inhabitants residing less than one kilometer from a rail transport station (metro, tramway, RER).

Result: a victory for Paris. The ITDP study ensures that 100% of Parisians currently have less than a kilometer to travel before boarding a metro, tram or RER car, thanks to one of the densest metro networks in the world. On the other hand, the statistics are less brilliant on a regional scale, with only 50% of Ile-de-France residents living less than a kilometer from a station. In this game, the suburbs of Barcelona (76%), Madrid (76%) and Rotterdam (55%) benefit from better access to public transport.

The Ile-de-France region could make up part of its gap in the next eight years. In 2024, the extension of metro line 14 will connect Orly airport, south of the capital, and the Saint-Denis Pleyel district, very close to the Stade de France sites and the future water park. and the athletes' village. A meeting between local elected officials and the RATP at the end of last week confirmed the good progress of the project.

Not surprisingly, American metropolises struggle to compete with European cities. Los Angeles, another candidate for the 2024 Games, shows more modest results: 24% of its inhabitants live less than a kilometer from a public transport station, a figure which drops to 11% when expanding the survey to include the entire region.

With a view to the 2024 Games, Paris also intends to strengthen its “cycling plan”. It's about time. At the latest count, bicycle trips only represent 5% of overall traffic in the capital. Derisory. Objective set by Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris: to increase to 15% by 2020. To achieve this, an investment of 150 million euros will be devoted to the development of 700 km of cycle lanes.

Monday October 24, the City of Paris announced in a press release that it had decided to join the initiative launched in the United States by the "Aspen Institute" and Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, for the adaptation of cities to autonomous vehicles. An “autonomous shuttle” will very soon be tested by the RATP, between the Lyon and Austerlitz stations. In this adventure, presented as a “technological and societal breakthrough in urban mobility”, Paris is associated with: Buenos Aires, Nashville, Austin and… Los Angeles.