Strasbourg builds “pedestrian arterials”

Governments of most cities in Western Europe have been trying over the last thirty (or more) years to reduce the role of the automobile in urban transportation. They’ve built new rail lines and renovated old ones. They’ve created elaborate bicycle infrastructure. And they’ve tried to improve conditions for pedestrians.

Comparison of efforts in different cities is difficult; there is no unambiguously best way to do this. But it is arguable that, when it comes to producing prose about the new policies, the French have been as prolific as anyone. This is particularly true when it comes to describing work to improve conditions for pedestrians. Lyon¹ and Bordeaux², for example, have issued elaborate plans for pedestrianization. Strasbourg, at least in proportion to its population,³ has arguably done more planning than any other urban area. Its government has produced at least two substantial plans for new pedestrian infrastructure, in 2011⁴ and in 2021.⁵ These plans have been widely disseminated. Some staff members have been making a career of going around the world to describe the plans.⁶ It’s significant that the pedestrian plans appear to have attracted a considerable amount of local support.⁷ Strasbourg’s tourist office has argued that the city’s walkability is one of the chief reasons for paying a visit.⁸

Much of what’s in Strasbourg’s plans would not surprise anyone. Walking, the plans argue, accounts for a substantial proportion of daily trips, but, during the several decades (the era of “tout automobile”) when improving conditions for drivers seemed like the most important goal of urban planners, pedestrian spaces were consistently reduced in size. Pedestrians not only need more space, the plans contend, but they also need to be made more secure. Pedestrian traffic should be kept as separate as possible from automobile—and bicycle—traffic. Possibly the most distinctive component of Strasbourg’s plans has been a proposal to build what are called “magistrales piétonnes,” a term that can be approximately translated as “pedestrian arterials.” These are substantial corridors devoted more or less exclusively to pedestrian use. The latest (2021) pedestrian plan shows one such arterial—between the train station and the Parc de l’Étoile in Neudorf (a distance of approximately 1500 m) —mostly completed and a couple of others—to the Rhine and along the Ill River—well underway. It also proposes a network of such magistrales piétonnes covering the entire urban area.

I went to take a look at Strasbourg’s pedestrian arterials (and other new non-automotive infrastructure) late last month. As it happens, I didn’t know Strasbourg very well. I’d been there only twice before, in 1969 and again in 2008, both times for a day or two. I’d been impressed the first time by all the half-timbered buildings that had somehow survived into modern times (although I was skeptical as always about the extent to which many of these might have been [re]created mostly to please tourists), and I’d been impressed on the second trip by the then still newish tram system, one of France’s largest. The first line opened in 1994, and the system’s been systematically enlarged in the decades since then. In 2017 it reached Kehl, a suburb across the Rhine in Germany. This branch is one of the world’s very few international tram lines.

Map of Strasbourg and vicinity emphasizing rail transit lines and pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The nominal scale of the map is 1:50,000. That’s the scale it would have if printed on a 14-x-14-inch sheet of paper. GIS data are mostly derived from the Geofabrik version of OpenStreetMap. I’ve edited all the data. Note that “pedestrian facilities” include some streets that are open to vehicles part-time. It also includes substantial sidewalks in a few places. It does not include streets classified as “living streets” in the OpenStreetMap database, that is, streets open to automobiles but with pedestrian priority. The map is clickable and downloadable, but note that this site’s host server does not allow images to be stored at their original resolution, and, if you zoom in too far, the image will be blurred. 

Map of central Strasbourg emphasizing rail transit lines and pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The nominal scale of the map is 1:20,000. That’s the scale it would have if printed on a 14-x-14-inch sheet of paper. See notes with preceding map for additional information.

The one nearly completed magistrale piétonne starts with a large pedestrian space in front of the main train station.

The Place de la Gare.

It continues to the heart of the central city, running along the Rue des Grandes Arcades, perhaps Strasbourg’s most important commercial street.

The pedestrianized Rue des Grandes Arcades.

South of the central city the designation of a street as being part of the magistrale piétonne has mostly meant that it’s acquired wider sidewalks and a protected bicycle lane. Here, for example, is a photo of a part of the Route du Polygone, a kilometer or so south of the Rue des Grandes Arcades.

Along the Route du Polygone, south of central Strasbourg.

Here’s another example: the Quai des Bateliers, which runs along the Ill River, Strasbourg’s inner-city river, along which a second medium-distance magistrale piétonne is being built (there are still gaps).

The pedestrianized Quai des Bateliers, which runs along the Ill River.

In addition to the newish pedestrian areas along (or essentially replacing) surface streets, Strasbourg also has pedestrian paths along its watercourses, notably the Ill River and associated streams. Many of these are located where there were once towpaths. These paths, however, are often not quite continuous.

Near water-level path along the Ill River.

There are also pedestrian paths along the Canal du Rhône au Rhin and other man-made watercourses that run through what was once a major industrial area south of the central city. This area’s renewal is a component of the Deux Rives/Zwei Üfer project, which proposes using the land on both sides of the Rhine for housing, commerce, and parks. The area’s walkability has been touted as one of its virtues.

Paths along the Bassin d’Austerlitz, part of the Canal du Rhône au Rhin, now lined with new housing and the Rivetoile shopping center.

One of the suggestions in the pedestrian plans is that officials should be aware of pedestrian preferences in everything they do. Perhaps this is the reason that the two substantial bridges on the newish tram line to Kehl incorporate wide paths for pedestrians and cyclists. There are now two pedestrian/cyclist bridges over the Rhine—plus a sidewalk on the main road bridge! Perhaps because this part of the urban area is still somewhat industrial, there aren’t a huge number of pedestrians or cyclists on the bridges, but there are a few.

The pedestrian/cyclist/tram bridge over the Bassin Vauban. Both the path and the tram line end up in Kehl, Germany.

I wouldn’t say that Strasbourg’s central-city pedestrian streets are perfect. Cyclists and scooter drivers sometimes—illegally—ride on some of them, and van drivers—legally—make deliveries on some pedestrian streets early in the morning. There is also (as elsewhere) the awkward problem of “pedestrian-priority” streets, where drivers are supposed to give way to pedestrians. This usually doesn’t work smoothly—pedestrians typically cede the right-of-way first.

There is also, as everywhere, an awkward problem where pedestrian paths are interrupted by major roads for cars. Such intersections usually have traffic lights, and drivers tend to obey them, but sometimes pedestrians face a long wait. Here’s a photo of the crossing of the original magistrale piétonne and the Quai du Général Koenig, just south of the central city (note the large number of pedestrians and cyclists).

Crossing the Quai du Général Koenig.

Strasbourg certainly seemed to me a congenial place for pedestrians. There are lots of people walking on the streets not only in the central city but in many of its residential districts as well. There are also a very large number of cyclists.⁹ Perhaps because facilities for pedestrians and cyclists are so good, there are actually relatively few cars in central Strasbourg. On the whole, it appears to be quite a secure place for pedestrians. Even in the outer city, drivers usually defer pretty much automatically to pedestrians in crosswalks and when making turns.

I wouldn’t say, however, that, despite all the planning, pedestrians seemed dramatically if at all better off in Strasbourg than in other big French cities. After all, it’s become pretty standard to pedestrianize streets in central cities in France. The more or less completed magistrale piétonne isn’t visibly marked as such, and it doesn’t feel a whole lot different from other pedestrianized streets in Strasbourg—and elsewhere in France. The planning of magistrales piétonnes may have encouraged the authorities to make Strasbourg’s pedestrian corridors more continuous than in some other cities, but it doesn’t appear to have resulted in corridors that are physically distinctive. They’re still quite impressive, however. No North American city has attempted anything like the amount of pedestrianization that is widespread in Strasbourg and many other French (and Western-European) cities.