Paris Projet n°47 - Au rythme des jeux - In step with the Games

An event that reverberated across the globe, Paris 2024 was also an unprecedented success for the entire metropolis. This success was rooted in the positive features of being within close range, which was emphasised in the bid, with 27 competition venues in the Greater Paris - Grand Paris - 80% of which lay within a 10-kilometre radius of the Athletes' Village and over 70 sites for celebrating the event locally in neighbourhoods. It was also based on the approbation of public space with 365 km of the streets transformed into sports circuits outside the stadiums, spreading across more than 90 municipalities and bringing over two million inhabitants into contact with events. During the Games, 28 km² were reserved as competition sites and regulated access, with 9% of the Paris area transforming the metropolis into an enormous sports ground of 168 km² with views of 1600 historical monuments that served as stadiums, grandstands and landscapes.

Through a hundred or so maps and the cross-referencing of several data sources, the Paris Urbanism Agency gives insight into the urban development undergone, as well as the chronotope (space/time) aspects of the event, the mobility of spectators and their places of residence. With more than 12 million tickets sold of which 9.5 million were for the Olympic Games, Paris 2024 surpasses all previous Games, attracting 40% of foreigners, 32% of people from the provinces and 28% from the Paris Region. The sites in Grand Paris welcomed 80% of all ticket holders, 39% of which were in Paris proper. During the 16 days of competitions, 12 sites sold over 400,000 tickets for the Olympics. During the Paralympic Games, a peak was reached on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September, which was mainly attended by people living in the Paris Region who represented 70% of ticket bought.
In order to quantify the intensity of use of the city during the Games, Apur also developed, processed and cross-referenced fifty or so data sources, some of which were massive. They allow an objective assessment of the number of people in the metropolis. 467,000 pedestrians visited Hotel de Ville and 330,000 the George Valbon Park per week. The contribution of Jacques Lévy and Jean Coldefy was an integral part of this process. It sheds light on the huge number of people present during the Games and those in certain neighbourhoods while competitions were taking place. This approach enables us to know that 140,000 people were present in Montmartre on 3rd August for the Road Cycling Race. Finally, adding hotel occupancy rates to the number of AirBnb listings (125,000) which increased by 69% within Paris and 113% in the suburbs, clarifies with new indicators the population in the metropolis during August 2024.

The magnitude of the event also allows the impact of certain measures put in place to be calculated on a larger scale. Within this framework the 2024 Paris Olympics particularly opened up the field of study on mobility with public transport widely acclaimed, 87% of the spectators travelled to competition sites by public transport, which had been rendered more accessible (extension of the metropolitan metro network, 100% of buses accessible in Paris). 73.3 km of Olympic lanes are now being used, experimentally, as car-share lanes (VR2+) on the Peripherique ring-road, A1 and A13, leading to a reduction in traffic congestion and the number of accidents registered. The Airparif data made it possible to quantify the improvement in the air quality, with a drop in car traffic and a rise in people walking. The -54% decrease of traffic on the Champs Elysees led to -2 μg/m3 of NO2 (minus -8%), the -29% reduction along the Quai de a Rapée resulted in  -3 μg/m3 (-10%). For the opening ceremony, the estimated -33% decrease of traffic in Paris reduced emissions by -22 μg/m3 (-34%) along the River Seine.

This 47th issue of the revue Paris Projet, highlights the transformations and the experience of the Games. It recounts how the event served both as an accelerator of public policies in regards to development and as a showcase of expertise. Their heritage is reflected in the transformation of north-eastern neighbourhoods, with over 4,000 new housing units, numerous redevelopments projects of space, the creation of six footbridges, more than 100 km of cycle paths and the renovation of twenty-odd sports facilities which were used as training sites. And of course, following the marathon swimming and triathlon events, seven swimming sites opened to the general public in the summer of 2025, three in Paris and four in La Marne and 34 other sites have been proposed. For if a city is built over the long-term, the pace of the 2024 Paris Games opened up a space for urban reflection on how to adapt the city which reaches far beyond the time of the event itself.