how cycling is changing to adapt to people with disabilities

Although cycling has exploded in France in recent years, and with it bicycles adapted for people with disabilities, there is still work to be done, particularly on infrastructure in the city.

For the sixth year, the Vélo in Paris festival is taking place at the Parc Floral, in the Bois de Vincennes, until Monday April 29. The opportunity to discuss the different issues of cycling development, with round tables and conferences, such as the adaptation of cycling for women or accessibility for users with disabilities.

While young and old race balance bikes, others discover bikes that open up new horizons, like the handbike, “a manually powered bicycle, with a ‘handwheel’ and not a crankset”explains Paul Mousny, who founded an association to provide access to bicycle trips for people with disabilities.

Cycling “like everyone else”

“It’s a fabulous tool,” for people in wheelchairs, for example, he explains. “Because the wheelchair is good, but pushing it at arm’s length on paths is not very easy. After a kilometer, it is very complicated. On the other hand, the handbike is a tool which allows you to completely escape, in pure autonomy”, rejoices Paul Mousny, who allows “It’s up to these people to take bicycle trips like everyone else.”

There is a “velosolution” for each disability. Christophe Dérouet is blind and founder of the site handivélo.fr. He practices tandem, but there are obstacles to the practice. “The difficulty, of course, is having pilots to guide us, because for the moment we have not found techniques for cycling alone. And architecture too : the anti-motorcycle barriers block in tandem. It’s also a barrier for people who want to cycle.”

Infrastructures still too restrictive

A question of arrangements which is precisely at the center of the mission of Marie Lemière, project manager at the ministerial delegation for accessibility. “It’s true that now there is a diversity of bicycles. There are handbikes, tandems, tricycles. So we have to take into account all the diversity of problems and obstacles that they may encounter.”

Marie Lemière details: “We are thinking in particular of the chicanes, the anti-intrusion blocks for motorized vehicles. We receive a lot of requests from the clubs of the French disabled sports federations, who tell us that there are roads and facilities which are new, but where the handbike cannot pass.”

“It’s all these little things that we have to take into account, but it’s developing and we have to co-build, the future is before us.”

Marie Lemiere

at franceinfo

There is therefore still a lot of work to be done to allow everyone to enjoy cycling. A pleasure perfectly expressed by Christophe Dérouet : “When I’m in the back, I live again as if I wasn’t blind. That’s obviously a pleasure. We have the wind, we have the sensations of reliving things a little, it’s a bit of the philosophy of cycling.” All festival participants agree : there is still a way to go before cycling is definitely open to all disabilities.