Paris is the centre of a national, and with air travel, international, complex transport system. The modern system has been superimposed on a complex map of streets and wide boulevards that were set in their current routes in the 19th century. On a national level, it is the centre of a web of road and railway, and at a more local level, it is covered with a dense mesh of bus, tram and metro service.
Environmental performance Paris has one of the most sustainable transportation systems in the world (private cars are only 4.3% of the overall traffic in the city centre) and is one of only two cities that received the Sustainable Transport Award twice, in 2008 and 2023. The second is Bogotá. The award was accorded for the continual efforts to expand active transportation networks, including specifically designated to help children, women, disabled persons. By the year of 2026, half of parking spaces should be turned into green spaces, bike lanes, spaces used for shared mobility and playgrounds.
In the years 2022–2023, 53.3% of the trips in the city centre were made on foot, 30% on public transport, 11.2% on bicycles and 4.3% on cars.
Bike lanes are being doubled, while electric car incentives are being created. The French capital is banning the most polluting automobiles from key districts. During only one year, the use of bicycles rose by 54%.
In 2022 the organization "Tools of change" finished a landmark case study about the transportation system in Paris. According to the study during the years 2010–2020 the modal share of cars in Paris declined from 12.8% to 6% while the modal share of active transportation (walking, cycling) rose from 55.4% to 68% (more than in Copenhagen and Barcelona) due to a combination of several governmental and local programs. Contrarily, in the whole Métropole du Grand Paris region the modal share of cars rose in those years from 39.5% to 43% and the modal share of active transportation declined from 40.3% to 36%. The use of public transport declined in Paris and slightly rose in the Paris Metropolis.
In March 2025, Parisiens approved a referendum, turning 500 more streets (5-8 per neighborhood) and 10,000 more parking lots into walking paths, cycle lanes, and greenery. 300 streets and 10,000 parking lots have already been transformed since 2020. The population will be further consulted about which streets will be converted.
Streets and thoroughfares 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 transport 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.
Public transport
Paris's most-frequented public transport is the Métro network, mostly underground. Across 16 lines, its closely spaced stations (around 500 metres between them on average) allow a connection between any capital quarter to any other, and a few lines extend quite far into the suburbs. This is complemented by a bus route network of 347 lines. Since 1992, the tramway has made a reappearance with 14 lines in the Île-de-France region, mostly outside the city borders. Paris is also the hub of the Réseau Express Régional (RER), a train network with higher speeds and wider stop spacing than the Métro which connects the capital to its suburbs. The Transilien, a rail network radiating from the capital's train stations, provides service to other suburban destinations.
A Navigo card can be used to pay public transport fares in the Île-de-France.
Organisation For the governance of Paris-area public transport, the basic rule of thumb is that the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens) governs all transport within and extending from the Parisian Capital, and the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français, the state-owned rail company whose network covers all of France) governs all transport outside of and only penetrating the capital, but there are exceptions to this rule. Metro, Tramway, most of the Bus services and parts of the RER network are run by the RATP. Other sections of the RER, as well as the Transilien, are run by the SNCF.
Statistics
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Paris, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 64 minutes. 15% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 12 minutes, while 14% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is , while 29.% travel for over in a single direction. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Métro
Paris's métro has 16 lines, and 12 of these penetrate into the surrounding suburbs. Lines 2 and 6 form a circle within Paris, with most other lines crossing the city diametrically.
RER
The RER (Réseau Express Régional) is a network of regional trains that run far into the suburbs of Paris, with fewer stops within the city itself. From its first line A in 1977, it has grown into a network of five lines, A, B, C, D and E: three (A, B, and D) pass through Paris's busiest and most central Châtelet-Les-Halles station. Line C occupies the path of former railways along the Seine's Rive Gauche quays, and the most recently built line E passes through Paris's Gare Saint-Lazare train station for destinations to Paris's north-east and north-west.
Transilien
Transilien trains operate on suburban lines connecting Paris's main stations to the suburbs not reached by the RER. The Transilien lines are named as a play-on-words for the "transit" of "Franciliens," inhabitants of the "Île-de-France" région of which Paris is the capital. lien also means link in French.
Tramway
All of Paris's tramways had stopped running by 1937, but this mode of transport has returned recently. Beginning in 1992, two lines (the T1 and T2) were built parallel to the outer boundaries of the capital. The T3 line, opened in stages starting in 2006, runs on grassy track alongside much of the city borders of Paris.
Bus
Paris's bus lines interconnecting all points of the capital and its closest suburban cities. There are 58 bus lines operating in Paris that have a terminus within city limits.
The capital's bus system has been given a major boost over the past decade. Beginning in early 2000, Paris's major arteries have been thinned to reserve an express lane reserved only for bus and taxi, usually designated with signs and road markings. More recently, these bus lanes have been isolated from the rest of regular circulation through low concrete barriers that form "couloirs" (corridors) and prevent all other forms of Paris traffic from even temporarily entering them. The greater Paris region has three Bus Rapid Transit lines, being the T Zen, Line 393, and the Trans Val De Marne.
There are electric buses.A new electric bus line in Paris, BE Green Autonomous buses are also being experimented in Vincennes since November 2017.
Cycling
Cycling is becoming a popular mode of transport in Paris although the infrastructure are still very scarce. The Vélib bike hire scheme was introduced in the middle of 2007 with over 20,000 bicycles available at hire points throughout the city.
Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, 84 km of bike lanes lanes were built in 2020–2025. Bicycle usage rose by 71% between the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns and 2023.
National and international rail connections
Paris's first "embarcadère" train station, the predecessor to the gare Saint-Lazare, appeared from 1837 as a home for the novelty Paris-à-Saint-Germain local line. Over the following ten years, France's developing rail network would give Paris five (including the Saint-Lazare station) national railway stations and two suburban lines, and from 1848 Paris would become the designated centre of an "Étoile" (star) spider-web of rail with reaches to (and through) all of France's borders. This pattern is still very visible in France's modern railway map.
As far as national and European destinations are concerned, rail transport is beginning to outdistance air travel in both travel time and efficiency. The still-developing SNCF's TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) network, since its birth in 1981, brings France's most southerly Marseille only 3 hours from the capital. A train similar to the TGV, the Eurostar, has been connecting Paris to central London by rail in 2h 15 since 1994, and in the opposite direction, the Thalys train service connects Brussels in 1h22 with up to 26 departures per day, Amsterdam in 3h18 with up to 10 departures per day and Cologne in 3h14, with up to 6 departures per day.
National and international air connections
+ Busiest destinations from Paris airports (CDG, ORY, BVA) in 2014 Destinations Locality PassengersItaly International 7,881,497 Spain International 7,193,481United States International 6,495,677Germany International 4,685,313 United Kingdom International 4,177,519 Toulouse Domestic 3,158,331 Morocco International 3,148,479 Portugal International 3,018,446 Nice Domestic 2,865,602 Algeria International 2,351,402 China International 2,141,527 Switzerland International 1,727,169 Bordeaux Domestic 1,539,478 Marseille Domestic 1,502,196 Pointe-à-Pitre Domestic 1,191,437 Saint-Denis (Réunion) Domestic 1,108,964 Fort-de-France Domestic 1,055,770 Montpellier Domestic 807,482 Biarritz Domestic 684,578 Lyon Domestic 613,395
Paris had its first airport in the fields of Issy-les-Moulineaux (just to the southern limits of Paris by its Seine river's Left Bank) from the first aviation trials of 1908. Aviation became a serious mode of transport during the course of World War I, which in 1915 led to the installation of a larger and more permanent runway installation near the town of Le Bourget to the north of Paris. A yet larger airport to the south of the Capital, Orly Airport, began welcoming flights from 1945, and yet another airport to the north of the city, Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, opened its gates from 1974.
Today the former airfields of Issy-les-Moulineaux have become a Heliport annex of Paris, and Le Bourget an airfield reserved for smaller aircraft. Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle takes the majority of international flights to and from Paris, and Orly is a host to mostly domestic and European airline companies.
A few low-cost carrier airlines, notably Ryanair and Wizz Air, offer flights to Beauvais–Tillé Airport and Châlons Vatry Airport, while marketing these airports as Paris airports. These airports are a lot farther from Paris than Orly and CDG, similarly to airports around London, located hours away from the city center.
History
In the Middle Ages, Paris was densely populated, but small, with the population packed within the city walls. As late as 1610 it was possible to walk from one side of the city to the other in about thirty minutes. While the nobility and wealthy had carriages, horses or chairs carried by porters, ordinary citizens had to walk. As the city grew, a new means of transport was needed.