Transport in Paris
|
Busiest destinations from Paris airports (CDG, ORY, BVA) in 2014 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic destinations | Passengers | ||||||||
 Toulouse
|
3,158,331 | ||||||||
 Nice
|
2,865,602 | ||||||||
 Bordeaux
|
1,539,478 | ||||||||
|
Marseille
|
1,502,196 | ||||||||
.svg){kind=small} Pointe-à-Pitre
|
1,191,437 | ||||||||
 Saint-Denis (Réunion)
|
1,108,964 | ||||||||
 Fort-de-France
|
1,055,770 | ||||||||
|
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| International destinations | Passengers | ||||||||
 Italy
|
7,881,497 | ||||||||
 Spain
|
7,193,481 | ||||||||
 United States
|
6,495,677 | ||||||||
 Germany
|
4,685,313 | ||||||||
 United Kingdom
|
4,177,519 | ||||||||
 Morocco
|
3,148,479 | ||||||||
 Portugal
|
3,018,446 | ||||||||
 Algeria
|
2,351,402 | ||||||||
 China
|
2,141,527 | ||||||||
|
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Superimposed on a complex map of streets and wide boulevards that evolved much until, but changed little after, the late 19th century, Paris is the centre of a national, and with air travel, international, complex transportation system. On a national level, it is the centre of a 'star' of road and railway, and at a more local level, it is covered with a dense mesh of bus, tram and metro service networks.
Paris is known for the non-linearity of its street map, as it is a city that grew 'naturally' around roadways leading to suburban and more distant destinations. Centuries of this demographic growth created a city cramped, labyrinth-like and unsanitary, until a late 19th century urban renovation, overseen by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, resulted in the wide boulevards we see there today. This remained relatively unchanged until the 1970s, and the construction of cross-city and periphery expressways.
More recently, the city began renovations to prioritise public transportation systems, and has created 'purpose' lanes dedicated to buses, taxis, and, more recently, cyclists, narrowing the passages reserved for automobiles and delivery vehicles. Although reducing traffic flow within the city itself, this traffic modification often results in traffic congestion at the capital's gateway thoroughfares.
Locally, Paris' most-frequented public transportation is the Métro: across 16 lines, its closely spaced stations (around 500 metres between them on any given line) allow a connection between any capital quarter to any other, and a few lines extend quite far into the suburbs. This is complemented above-ground by a quite complex bus route map of 347 lines, and, since 1992, the tramway has made a reappearance in eight lines around the capital periphery. Paris is also the hub of the Réseau Express Régional (RER), a higher-speed and wider-spaced-station above- and under- ground train network that connects the capital to more distant suburban regions. The Transilien, in a rail network radiating from the capital's train and RER stations, compliments this in turn with yet more suburban destinations.
Paris' transportation tarification is dictated by zones, with zones 1-2 covering the capital and its immediate periphery, and zones 3, 4 and 5 covering increasingly distant destinations in the Île-de-France; monthly or weekly 'Navigo' passes cover all forms of public transport within the Île-de-France (zones no longer apply to the pass since September 2015) for a flat fee. Those without a monthly pass can purchase a single ticket or books of tickets; a single ticket allows a traveller to transfer between the bus and tram networks, and transfer between the metro and RER networks, but one-ticket transfer between the below-ground and above-ground networks is prohibited.
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Wikipedia