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Ile-de-France: assess your town with the first “walkable towns barometer”

2021-02-02T17:08:09.608Z


While in Ile-de-France nearly 40% of daily trips are made on foot, the French Hiking Federation and two associations


Cross on foot a motorway junction entrance?

The idea seems totally incongruous.

However, between Saint-Denis and La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), it is possible, even if taking the passage protected by a faded white paint is a technical gesture when the traffic is intense.

Before setting off, it is better to pay attention to the speed of the cars rushing towards the A1.

The rain is cold, the traffic heady, but they do not discourage a young man who rushes towards the ramp.

“The place is unpleasant, but I prefer that to the waiting times for the tram which is always crowded anyway.

I have the right to walk here, but given how fucked up, I have the impression of being just tolerated, ”he replies, before heading towards La Courneuve, at an ever-sustained pace.

Walking in Seine-Saint-Denis and in the inner suburbs is far from being obvious, yet many inhabitants do so.

As in Paris, it is even the dominant mode of travel and, also, the first in front of the car on the scale of the region.

Already more than 20,000 responses to the questionnaire

For the first time, a large questionnaire offers you until March 15 to assess the place given to pedestrians in your municipality.

This barometer of “walkable cities”, like what has been done for several years for cycling, is organized by the French Hiking Federation supported by the Rue de l'Avenir and 60 Million de Pedestrians associations.

Saint-Denis, going towards La Courneuve, August 2020. Pedestrians must cross the entrance of a motorway junction.

A passage only protected by paint.

Google Street View  

More than 20,000 responses have already been recorded across the country, including more than 650 from Seine-Saint-Denis, which is not lacking in failing infrastructure.

Sidewalks narrower than the length of an outstretched arm (rue Timbaud in La Courneuve), anarchic parking lots (avenue Edouard-Vaillant in Pantin), coverings in small rutted cobblestones (boulevard Thorez in Bobigny) which transform shopping bags with wheels in jackhammers, conflicts of use (the new cycle lane in front of the Mairie-de-Saint-Ouen metro station of line 14), puddles of dirty water galore (everywhere!), urban cuts ... The spaces reserved for pedestrians are often overlooked by road experts and public planners.

"We must make walking more comfortable and safer"

The inner suburbs in particular and Ile-de-France in general are full of these hidden corners because of walking.

“Pedestrians are absent from city politics, whereas they are the ones who make the city!

Exclaims Anne Faure, president of Rue de l'Avenir.

"He is a neglected user, who does not exist", adds Jean-Paul Auger, of the departmental hiking committee of Seine-Saint-Denis.

“The sidewalks are leftovers.

They are very often what remains once the road is done, ”notes Dominique Riou, engineer in charge of mobility and transport, at the Paris Region Institute, the Ile-de-France town planning agency.

“We cannot imagine cars driving without infrastructure, but we assume that pedestrians will be able to go everywhere, that they will manage,” he adds.

"Ile-de-France is one of the most popular regions in the world"

However, "walking is not a given, it must be made more comfortable and safer," continues Anne Faure.

Where are we in the municipalities of France?

This is what the walkable city barometer intends to assess: to each of the questions, users respond by classifying their feelings on a scale of 1 to 6. Examples: does the layout of the road allow them to move anywhere from Easily, do motor vehicle drivers respect pedestrians, do you feel very unsafe or very safe on foot?

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The consultation also proposes to collect the opinions in terms of improvements to be made as a priority: the distance of pedestrian traffic from noisy areas, the treatment of urban cuts, the verbalization of badly parked drivers… The ideas of the inhabitants will deserve to be looked at , especially since "in the country of the all-car", as Anne Faure emphasizes, "Ile-de-France is one of the most popular regions in the world", recalls the Paris Region Institute in a 2016 survey.

17.2 million trips made exclusively on foot each day

This is confirmed by the partial results of the global transport survey (EGT) presented in September 2019 by the Mobility Observatory in Ile-de-France: it estimates at 17.2 million the number of trips made exclusively on foot each day.

Nearly 40% of daily trips in the Paris region are made by walking, according to data dating from before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The health crisis has nevertheless changed behavior, with residents of Ile-de-France having reduced their trips.

For example, the use of public transport has fallen by 28%, according to a survey conducted in the fall of 2020 by Ile-de-France Mobilités.

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Greater Paris: how to better protect pedestrians?


The barometer of walkable cities, which will be renewed every two years, will serve as a “spur” against communities, according to Jean-Paul Auger.

Developers are however starting to realize the scale of the task and the need to rebalance the divisions.

In Saint-Denis, the third largest city in Ile-de-France with nearly 113,000 inhabitants, is working to put the entire city in zone 30, to “fight against road insecurity”.

In La Courneuve, the project for a 100-meter-long pedestrian-cyclist footbridge will cross the barrier of the A1 motorway and link the 4000 district to the departmental park.

The price to pay to reduce (a little) this urban cutoff is estimated at 16.4 million euros excluding tax, of which only 13.2 million euros have been validated to date.

The questionnaire for the “walkable city barometer” is online until March 15.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-02-02

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