Business travel and trips between sites by electric bike, in Paris and the inner suburbs

A fleet project is judged on the territory employees have to cover rather than on a catalogue. Three sets of public data frame the question in Paris and the inner suburbs: the real state of the cycle network, the speed at which cars actually travel, and the share the bicycle already holds in journeys. None of them shows that the bicycle suits every journey; they show where the question is worth asking.

A 1,607 km network that is not made up of cycle tracks alone

The Ville de Paris counts 1,607 km of cycle routes at the end of 2025, up 2% on 2024, that is 31 km more, in the chapter on cycling in its Bilan des déplacements à Paris en 2025, its annual review of travel in Paris, published on 3 June 2026. That total aggregates seven types of infrastructure whose riding conditions bear no comparison with one another.

For a business journey, the breakdown matters more than the total. Cycle tracks, physically separated from other modes, and greenways, reserved for non-motorised vehicles, pedestrians and horse riders, together account for 486 km, less than a third of the announced network. The 435 km of double-sens cyclables, contraflow cycle lanes, which the review recalls were made general in zones 30, the low-speed zones, and in zones de rencontre, the shared-space zones, by décret n° 2008-754 of 30 July 2008, known as the “code de la rue”, shorten journeys in one-way streets. The 169 km of bus lanes open to cycles are shared with buses. At the other extreme, the 231 km of pedestrian streets come under a regime the City itself spells out: bicycles are allowed there at walking pace, and pedestrians retain priority in all circumstances. A journey time estimated on the assumption of a continuous protected network of 1,607 km will therefore be too optimistic.

The same review publishes 136,510 on-street bike parking spaces in 2025, up 14.5%, and use of cycling infrastructure up 7.9% on 2024 on the network instrumented by the City. On-street parking says nothing, on the other hand, about secure storage capacity inside the company's buildings, a subject dealt with below.

Cars travel at 9.6 km/h in Paris and at 33.7 km/h on the périphérique

The chapter on traffic, put online on 15 July 2026, states that with an average speed of 9.6 km/h, down 7.7% on 2024, the speed of car traffic within Paris intra-muros falls in 2025 below the symbolic 10 km/h mark. Traffic volume remains stable, at 478.9 vehicle-kilometres per hour against 478.4 in 2024, a year marked by the traffic restrictions linked to the Olympic Games. The measurement covers an instrumented network of 210 km of main roads, from 7am to 9pm, on working days. On the boulevard périphérique, measured over the same time range, the average speed stands at 33.7 km/h, down 4.3%.

For a trip between sites, the two figures are read together. A meeting within Paris takes place in car traffic moving at an average of under 10 km/h. A link between two establishments on opposite sides of the capital can, by contrast, use the périphérique, where cars travel on average three and a half times faster than inside Paris. The bicycle therefore does not win on every journey.

Within Paris, the bicycle is already ahead of the car

According to the Enquête Mobilité par GPS of the Institut Paris Region, as published by the Ville de Paris, 11.2% of journeys within Paris are made by bicycle, against 4.3% by car. The same publication puts forward shares of 14% and 11.8% for journeys between Paris and the inner suburbs, but under two wordings whose denominators differ; since we cannot settle the point, we do not use them.

Beyond the périphérique, a regional network less than half open

The Région Île-de-France is leading the Réseau Vélo Île-de-France, for which 750 km of safe routes are scheduled by 2030. At the Rencontres régionales du vélo (the regional cycling conference) of 11 September 2026, it announced 350 km now open, 30 km under construction and a further 200 km under study, and a committed completion rate of 77%. The same announcement states that only 50 km of routes carry signage in the colours of Île-de-France Mobilités, and presents a plan devoted to urban barriers (coupures urbaines), with 70 million euros over four years, as well as a signage plan.

For a link between two sites in the inner suburbs, the consequence is simple. The 350 km open represent less than half of the scheduled network, and the urban barriers the Région undertakes to deal with are precisely what lengthens a route. The real route between two establishments is reconnoitred on the ground before a fleet is sized, not on a project map.

The legal regime turns first on whether the vehicle complies with the definition of the cycle à pédalage assisté, the pedal-assist cycle. Article R. 311-1 of the code de la route, in the version in force since 25 July 2026, defines at point 6.11 the cycle à pédalage assisté as a cycle fitted with an auxiliary electric motor with a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kilowatt, whose power supply is progressively reduced and finally cut off when the vehicle reaches a speed of 25 km/h, or sooner if the rider stops pedalling.

As long as it stays within those characteristics, the bike remains a cycle. It therefore requires neither registration nor a driving licence, and the service-public.gouv.fr factsheet on bicycle insurance, checked on 13 November 2025, states that the pedal-assist electric bike, which belongs to the category of cycles, is not subject to compulsory insurance. The same factsheet classes the speedbike-type electric bike among cyclomoteurs, mopeds under French law, which are subject to compulsory third-party liability insurance, and recommends third-party liability insurance to every cyclist.

For a company fleet, the absence of an insurance obligation does not settle the question of liability. Article 1242 of the code civil (the French Civil Code), in the version in force since 25 June 2025, makes principals (commettants) liable for damage caused by their agents (préposés) in the duties for which they have employed them. The INRS (the French national research and safety institute for the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases) infers from this, in its legal factsheet on cycling at work, that the employer bears civil liability for damage caused to a third party by an employee riding a bike, and recommends checking the company's insurance cover. For the home-to-work journey, the same factsheet refers the employee to their own insurance, since a multirisque habitation, a comprehensive home insurance policy, may cover damage caused to a third party under certain conditions. The exact content of the cover is a matter for the company's insurer.

Helmet wearing calls for a precise reading of the text. Article R. 431-1-3 of the code de la route requires a helmet for the rider and the passenger of a cycle who are under twelve. Its paragraph III punishes, with the fine laid down for fourth-class contraventions, any adult who carries or accompanies a child under twelve without a helmet. For adult employees, therefore, no helmet obligation follows from the code de la route. The INRS nonetheless regards the helmet as essential when a bike is used at work, and the employer remains free to provide it and to make it compulsory within its own organisation.

The high-visibility vest comes under a different article, often confused with the previous one. Article R. 431-1-1, in force since 21 September 2016, provides that when riding at night, or by day when visibility is poor, every rider and passenger of a cycle must wear, hors agglomération, that is, outside built-up areas, a high-visibility vest complying with the regulations, failure to do so being punishable by the fine laid down for second-class contraventions. The words hors agglomération sharply limit the reach of the rule within Paris, but it becomes operative again on a link between sites that leaves the built-up area.

Article R. 412-6-1 of the code de la route, in the version in force since 22 May 2020, prohibits the driver of a vehicle in traffic from using a hand-held telephone and from wearing at the ear any device capable of emitting sound, electronic hearing aids excepted, on pain of the fine laid down for fourth-class contraventions. The INRS points out that this prohibition applies to the employee on a bike, which rules out, for example, earphones used to follow voice navigation on the way to a meeting.

Theft, lastly, has its own framework. Article L. 1271-2 of the code des transports provides that cycles and pedal-assist cycles sold by a trader have been subject to identification since 1 January 2021 for sales of new cycles and since 1 July 2021 for second-hand sales, and article L. 1271-3 creates a fichier national unique des cycles identifiés (a single national register of identified cycles) in order to combat theft, handling and unlawful resale.

Four subjects need to be dealt with before signature, not after: assessing road risk, the rule of use, negotiation and the mobility plan, and storage.

Assessing the risk and recording it in the document unique

Article L. 4121-3 of the code du travail (the French Labour Code), in the version in force since 31 March 2022, requires the employer to assess, taking account of the nature of the establishment's activities, the risks to workers' health and safety, including in the choice of work equipment and in the organisation of work. Article L. 4121-3-1, in force since the same date, requires it to record and update the results of that assessment in the document unique. Business journeys by bike belong there, as do those made by car.

The INRS factsheet on cycling at work, updated on 9 December 2020, spells out this obligation for an employer that makes bikes available for business journeys: determining whether the bike is a suitable and safe mode of travel for the trips envisaged, taking account of cycle tracks, traffic plans and possible routes, analysing any training needs of the riders, choosing suitable models and keeping them properly maintained, providing lighting, reflectors, the vest and the helmet, and providing sheltered and secure parking spaces. Article L. 4141-2 of the code du travail also requires the employer to organise practical and appropriate safety training for, in particular, the workers it hires and those who change workstation or technique.

Writing down the rule of use

A pool bike presupposes a written rule: who may borrow it, for which journeys, in which time slots, where it is kept in the evening, and what is excluded, starting with private use. Our page on the company bike and the avantage en nature sets out the written document that published social security doctrine expects when the employer prohibits private use. The same document would do well to specify what to do on days of heavy rain, frost or extreme heat, the equipment provided and the procedure in the event of an accident or theft.

Mandatory negotiation and the plan de mobilité employeur

Mobility is part of mandatory negotiation. Point 8° of article L. 2242-17 of the code du travail, in the version in force since 31 March 2022, includes in the annual negotiation on professional equality and quality of life and working conditions, in the businesses referred to in article L. 2143-3 of the same code at least fifty of whose employees work on the same site, measures aimed at improving employees' mobility between their usual place of residence and their place of work. Failing agreement on those measures, paragraph II bis of article L. 1214-8-2 of the code des transports, in force since 1 January 2020, requires the businesses concerned at least fifty of whose employees work on the same site to draw up a plan de mobilité employeur covering their various sites.

Paragraph I of the same article bears most directly on business travel. It provides that the plan de mobilité employeur analyses journeys between home and work and business journeys, and that it includes a programme of actions that may encourage, among other things, walking and cycling, a financing plan, an implementation timetable and arrangements for monitoring and updating. A fleet of pool bikes fits into that programme, and the record of your business journeys is its raw material.

Storage: a point to check first

Premises compliant with the regulatory quota may still be physically unusable for the fleet envisaged. The survey of the existing premises must be carried out before the decision on bike format, not the reverse. The applicable thresholds and access constraints are dealt with on our page on folding and compact bikes at work, together with journeys combined with public transport.

Wander Fleet introduces businesses in Île-de-France to sociétés de crédit-bail that may finance the equipping of their employees with pedal-assist company bikes or pool bikes. Our role is limited to that introduction.

This activity is carried out in the capacity of indicateur (mere introducer) within the meaning of point 2° of article R. 519-2 of the code monétaire et financier (the French Monetary and Financial Code), that is, a person whose role is confined to pointing out a credit institution or a financing company to interested parties, without handing over any documents other than advertising material, or to passing their contact details on to it. Wander Fleet is not registered with ORIAS (the French register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries) and does not carry on the activity of intermédiaire en opérations de banque et en services de paiement (banking and payment services intermediary under French law).

Several prohibitions follow, and we apply them to ourselves. Wander does not finance, does not negotiate, does not distribute credit and sends no costing to any given client; the calculators on this site, self-service and based on published and adjustable assumptions, are not a costing addressed to anyone. The binding costing, the term, the guarantees required and the acceptance of the file are matters for the établissement financier (the financing institution) alone, a société de crédit-bail, separate from Wander. Nor do we sell the vehicles or carry out their maintenance, which is entrusted to third-party workshops.

The term leasing is used on this site as a market term. The legal characterisation of the financed transaction is crédit-bail within the meaning of article L. 313-7 of the code monétaire et financier, which distinguishes it from simple hire by the existence of a purchase option for the lessee, at a price taking account at least in part of the lease payments made. That distinction governs the accounting treatment, the tax treatment and, as seen above, access to certain public grants.

No financing contract has been signed to date. We therefore claim no partnership, and every page on this site that mentions a société de crédit-bail does so by designating it as a third party, separate from Wander.