Tell a Parisian that you take the bus to work every morning, and they'll stare at you in amazement. In the French capital, buses are almost universally regarded as the most unreliable means of transport. Yet they've been recently renovated, almost all run on electricity or biomethane, are air-conditioned, cheaper than the metro since the new year, and are the only network fully accessible to people with reduced mobility. Buses would have everything to please... if only they'd get moving.

According to figures released at the end of October 2024 by the RATP, the body that manages Paris' transport system, Parisian buses traveled at an average of 8.85 kilometers per hour (km/h) during rush hour in March 2024, compared with 9.54 km/h in January 2022 and 15 km/h in 2000. An average speed now well below that of the metro (25 km/h), but not so far off that of walking (4 to 6 km/h for the fastest).

In 2021, the Association for Transport Users (AUT) for Paris region drew up its own statistics and further estimated that buses spent 39% of the time at a standstill, either to comply with traffic lights or due to traffic difficulties.

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