“It’s a very good first step. But we have to see the rest of the financial roadmap”reacted on Tuesday evening September 20 on franceinfo Olivier Schneider, president of the French Federation of Bicycle Users (Fub), while Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced the launch of a second plan in favor of cycling to make France one “bike nation”. This plan will be supplemented for 2023 by 250 million euros. La Fub claimed last week, in a column published on the Le Monde website, a “Marshall Plan” for the bike. Olivier Schneider warns about the infrastructures to be put in place, because “the French are ready to switch to cycling, but not at all costs”. He adds that the issue is also “to seek out territories that have not started their cycling transition”.
franceinfo: Do the Prime Minister’s announcements measure up?
Oliver Schneider: In the short term, in 2023, yes. What we were asking for was a two-and-a-half-billion-euro Marshall plan for cycling over the five-year term. It is on average 500 million euros per year, with a trajectory that grows year after year. At the beginning, the money is spent on studies and then it is to make investments. It’s a very good step, but we have to see the rest of the financial roadmap. It will necessarily be more than 250 million euros in the following years.
For France to switch to cycling, will this only be done with investments?
Today, local authorities have really become aware that our fellow citizens are ready to take up cycling, but not at all costs, provided that they do not risk their own lives in the middle of an undeveloped roadway. And so the challenge is not to continue only in the cities already committed like Lyon, Paris, Strasbourg or Grenoble. But it is to seek out territories that have not even started their cycling transition yet.
Are there many cities behind?
Our latest barometer of cycling cities shows that 90% of classified municipalities are below average. We have more than half of French men and women who are ready to immediately switch to cycling on their short and medium journeys and 90% of municipalities that do not offer the conditions to do so.
Is there a whole infrastructure to put in place around the bike?
The bicycle system is a whole set of factors. You have to be able to park your bike, learn to ride a bike, you have to have a bike. But all this makes no sense as long as there is no infrastructure. The first step is infrastructure. We see today that it is in cities that started a long time ago, like Grenoble and Strasbourg, or recently but by putting the package, like Lyon and Paris, where we see more and more cyclists.
Cycling remains a very urban practice. What to do for the outskirts of large cities or for the countryside?
The main challenge is really to invest in all these territories which have yet to initiate their cycling transition to prevent a chasm from widening between the French who have access to cycling and those who are dependent on the car. For this, we need support, particularly in terms of engineering. And for long journeys, it is necessary to be able to easily combine the bicycle with a bus, with carpooling, with the train. This is what will allow, up to 7 or 10 km with an electrically assisted bicycle, to make a 100% bicycle journey. And beyond that, to combine it with another transport.