2022 Volume 77 Issue 5 Pages I_449-I_467
In this paper, we illustrate the process by which French territorial authority have revived their city centers, previously dominated by cars, into bustling multimodal cities. This was achieved by decisively redistributing the road space, reorganizing the urban surface for the convenience of pedestrians, as well as developing public transportation. We highlight the importance of the social and technical background in enabling redistribution of the road space. French national legislation, that emphasized environmental protection and welfare, played an important role in making cities as “walkable” as possible. Local governments, the entities that implemented these policies, were major actors of this transformation. French citizens have adopted the new urban space structure, thanks to the construction of pedestrian and bicycle lanes, without disregarding the advantages of car-based mobility．This article concludes on the changes in the French way-of-life, as well as major social trends within the cities, that could inspire the future of urban space planning in Japan.
