Bikes everywhere.
17,195 is the number of cyclists who passed Boulevard Sébastopol on May 11, according to the counters installed by the Paris City Hall.
A figure almost equivalent to the absolute record of June 7, 2019, when they were 17,284 to have pedaled along the boulevard which joins the Gare de l'Est and the Seine.
And between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., the number of cyclists supplanted the number of motor vehicles, with 2,151 bicycles compared to 1,874 vehicles on the roadway.
According to Aymeric Cotard, communications manager for the "Better move by bicycle" (MDB) association, this is a trend that is taking hold over time: "We have several points in Paris where, at certain times, the number of cars is lower than that of cyclists".
This crowd is not without causing tension, especially with pedestrians crossing the track: Claude says he often had to avoid bicycles passing at high speed: “And I don't run as fast as before, you know!
There are too many cyclists.
A statement shared by other pedestrians, but also some cyclists: "It's better in winter", explains Chantal, a helmet with a visor screwed on the head.
For Aymeric Cotard, of MDB, this influx shows that it is necessary to build a second cycle path on the boulevard Sébastopol: “Parisians start cycling more quickly than the infrastructures are built”, advances the specialist.
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 1.4 million bicycles have taken this Parisian artery, which is by far the busiest for cyclists.