The bicycle, this soft mode of transport is increasingly used: sales reached nearly 3 million in 2021 in France. The sector is mainly propelled by the boom in VAE, electrically assisted bicycles, which represent nearly one in four sales in the territory, an increase of 28% in one year.
Quentin Sartorius, CEO of the Elwing pedelec brand, explains: “All of the growth in the market has been driven by the electric bicycle, because for several years now it has been meeting the constraints of being able to move around effortlessly, with children and with heavy loads. It becomes accessible to everyone, it’s easier to use and less exclusive.”
However, the bicycle still represents only 4% of the daily journeys of the French, against 27% in the Netherlands, where there are moreover more bicycles than inhabitants. However, the bicycle is profitable, both for users and for the economy.
“Today, on average, when you travel by bike, you save society 19 cents: you generate neither noise nor greenhouse gases, and you improve your health. Conversely, when you travel by car, each time you travel 1 kilometer, it costs 50 cents”, highlighted Olivier Schneider, President of the French Federation of Bicycle Users
The solution can also be found in repair, when 1.5 million bicycles are thrown away each year, two-thirds of which can be repaired.
The positive impact of cycling on health is even estimated at 5.6 billion euros per year in France. Nevertheless, the rise in the price of bicycles, following the difficulties of supplying components from Asia, remains a brake, in every sense of the term.
Some manufacturers, such as Boudebois, then replace the metals and carbon in bicycle frames with bamboo. Gaël Enaud, creator of the brand, recalls: “Bamboo has mechanical priorities that are very interesting: it will absorb micro-vibrations from the road and therefore provide much greater comfort in use.”
And with this growth, however, the problem of bicycle theft, which oscillates around 400,000 per year in France, and that of accidents, in the absence of sufficiently developed urban infrastructures, persist.
Beyond the everyday aspect, the bike also has a sporty and unusual side, which always surprises us a little more. Between the bike that was flashed at 296 km / h, a rally of solar bikes, the Sun Trip, next June from Grenoble, the world championships of recumbent bikes in July in the Jura, without forgetting in Paris, before the Olympic Games, a project for a world championship of pedal cars, pedal boats on foils and even pedal planes! All this unpacking or rather pedaling has not finished surprising us!