Transport policy at an impasse: managing on-street delivery areas in Paris

This chapter focuses on a French case of delivery parking policy, which is symptomatic of a transport policy impasse: a policy that is so under-implemented and poorly enforced that it cannot be considered as functioning. The analysis is based on the evaluation of an experiment made in 2022 in Paris. Delivery spaces connected to an app available to delivery drivers and law enforcement were implemented in a dense part of the city. The experiment was technically successful. However, with less than five uses per day, the experiment failed to catch the interest of delivery drivers. This case is representative of the legal and institutional difficulties of parking policy in France, which exist to a lesser degree in other European countries. Paris is rightly known for its fight against the dominance of private cars. But behind this reputation lie sectoral failures that have negative impacts on city life.