The coexistence of buses and bicycles in Paris began with a marriage of convenience in 1999. At that time there were no cycle paths, and far fewer cyclists than today.
"We prefer to rub shoulders with professional drivers from the RATP than Parisian motorists," even welcomed the representative of a cycling association.
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But today, the marriage is consummated and the divorce in progress.
“When there's a bus behind me, I'm scared,” says Philippe, who has been cycling for a long time.
Clara has had enough of “little daily scares with these big buses that pass very close or that overtake and fall back.
From now on, the cyclist chooses routes including the least possible sharing of her journey with buses.
On twitter, denunciations of dangerous behavior by unscrupulous RATP machinists flourish, sometimes with video support.
Hello @ClientsRATP, sometimes your drivers forget that their bus is LONG... pic.twitter.com/i9K4e8Ykch
— Johan (@JohanBaltie) December 20, 2021
How do I report a bus driver who very voluntarily (he told me so) put me in danger by brushing against me on the right when I started while I was in front of him on the bike lock?@RATPgroup @ClientsRATP
— comob (@comob_FR) June 3, 2021
The Parisian transport authority defends itself by explaining that they note "in 2021 a drop in accidents involving buses and cyclists and very few serious accidents".
It's true that there hasn't been a fatal cyclist accident caused by an RATP machinist since May 2, 2008, when a 35-year-old cyclist lost her life in a bus lane.
But “very little” and “decreasing”: all this is not precise.
We asked for statistics on accidents in Paris between RATP machinists and cyclists.
Sign of a somewhat taboo subject in the capital: neither the Paris police headquarters nor the RATP wanted to communicate them to us.
The problem is that beyond bodily injury, riding a bicycle next to buses is scary.
Being overtaken when traveling on two wheels by a vehicle 11 m long which weighs 19 tonnes, load included, is indeed not pleasant, even with the legal safety distance for overtaking which is one meter in town.
Nicolas Chaste, owner of the Popcycle bicycle store, goes even further: “It's an obstacle to converting to cycling.
A family that has a bad experience with a bus on its journey will cancel the journey and switch to another mode of transport”.
Read alsoVIDEO.
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The solutions therefore lie in real separation of flows with appropriate infrastructures.
The advanced bus platform is one example.
Cyclists no longer have to wait behind a bus at its stop or attempt a difficult overtaking because the stop is simply no longer in their path.
The cycle axis and the bus axis no longer mix.
Pedestrians quietly wait for their bus without being bothered by bicycles.
The RATP machinist no longer runs the risk of not seeing a bicycle appearing in his blind spot.
And the cyclist does not see his journey interrupted.
Everyone is (finally) happy on the Parisian roads.
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