Would this be a historic day for cycling in Ile-de-France?
On November 30, all of the Ile-de-France players involved in the realization of the RER Vélo took part in the first project steering committee, led by the region.
For nearly three hours, brought together via the Internet, no less than 140 elected officials and technicians, from different communities (departments, municipalities and inter-municipal authorities), laid the groundwork for a future continuous network of 650 km of secure cycle paths.
Five priority axes have been defined.
Each is overseen by a “line committee”, bringing together all the cities concerned, in order to precisely trace the influence of future cycle paths.
Taking broad strokes of the RER routes, these five branches must be fully upgraded by 2025. They will go from Paris to La Défense (92) and Cergy-Pontoise (95) for line A1, Marne-la-Vallée (77 ) for the A2, Massy- Saclay (91) - Plaisir (78) for the B3, Saint-Denis (93) - Le Mesnil-Aubry (95) for the D1 line or even Choisy-le-Roi (94) - Corbeil -Essonnes (91) for the C2.
Secondly, two "circulars", in small and large belt, will be studied to allow transit from one line to another, without going through Paris.
The issue of signage and “totems” guiding users was also addressed.
The RER bike, imagined by the volunteers of the Ile-de-France cycling collective, has gone from a somewhat crazy project in a few months to a concrete infrastructure, supported by a majority of elected officials.
“We did not imagine that when we were five volunteers around a map of Ile-de-France in April 2019, remembers Louis Belenfant, director of the Ile-de-France cycling collective, which brings together 35 associations of cyclists.
The political impetus of the region is decisive.
This is only the beginning, and we feel that the bike dynamic is there.
Cycling is now seen as a serious mode of travel, which requires serious infrastructure.
"
The region puts 300 million on the table
The Ile-de-France region, which coordinates the procedures between the various players, will in fact devote 300 million euros to the RER bicycle, and has undertaken to finance 60% of the work.
It plans to invest up to 6 million euros per site to overcome the main urban cuts (bridges, roundabouts, etc.).
“When the Ile-de-France cycling collective came to present its RER bicycle project to me, I was impressed that an associative movement presented a project of such technical quality, underlines the president Valérie Pécresse (Libres!).
Rather than sprinkling and confetti with tracks, this is exactly what it takes.
"
The region's ambition is to triple the number of trips by bicycle, recalls Valérie Pécresse.
"The pandemic and the electric bicycle have given a boost to the practice, with more and more bicycle", observes the elected.
But for the bicycle to be adopted by as many people as possible, "we must build an ecosystem, ensure the safety of cyclists, with tracks, and of their bikes, by developing car parks near stations".
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On the collective side, it is estimated that the routes of the first five branches of the RER bicycle could be stopped as early as 2021, and some sections completed by 2022, depending on the involvement of the municipalities.
"Many axes already have temporary tracks
(Editor's note: coronapistes)
, underlines Louis Belenfant.
We are entering a new phase, moving from the temporary, yellow paint, to the permanent granite.
"
40,000 additional bicycle parking spaces
Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the regional authority in charge of transport, wishes to create “40,000 additional secure bicycle parking spaces”, to facilitate bicycle access for Ile-de-France residents to the 65 stations and stations of the future Grand Paris Express (lines 15, 16, 17 and 18).
Estimated budget: 26 million euros.
“These 40,000 places will complete the objective of 100,000 places set in February 2020,” adds IDFM.
Today, around 10,500 spaces have already been financed by Ile-de-France Mobilités under the Véligo / Parkings Vélos system, and 8,400 are already in service.
"
