It's time for the second stage of the “cycling and active mobility 2020” plan.
The regional prefecture has selected the 22 winning projects of the second call for projects launched last year by the State to financially help the municipalities to develop their cycling networks.
The selected files are distributed throughout the Ile-de-France but with an over-representation of Seine-Saint-Denis, which concentrates more than a quarter of the winning projects.
The cities (or departments) which had applied for the call for projects last June will receive a total envelope of € 17.2 million to finance their cycling works.
Health context requires, these arrangements will focus on the sustainability or security of the transition cycle paths (the "coronapistes") developed, sometimes in a hurry after leaving the first confinement.
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This is particularly the case for the four Parisian projects selected.
The State will thus participate in the financing of the sustainability of the track which runs along metro line 13 on the right bank as well as on the left bank;
to the improvement of the provisional track which runs along line 3 to the east of the capital or to the creation of "real" cycling facilities near the Porte de Clignancourt, in the 18th century.
Real secure slopes in Pantin and Créteil
In Val-de-Marne, grants from the “active mobility” fund will make it possible to give a definitive character to the “health cycle paths” of departmental 4, 86 and 120 in Nogent and Vincennes.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, it is on the departmental 932 (avenue Jean-Jaurès which separates Pantin from Aubervilliers) that a very large project to take over the provisional developments is to come.
The old Nationale 2 - which has changed its name and status but not its appearance - looks like an urban motorway that is not very “bike friendly”.
The small existing cycle path which stopped 200 m from the Porte de la Villette has been extended by a lane reserved for cyclists which is materialized only by a strip of yellow paint on the road bordered, from time to time, by plastic studs for the most part crushed.
This ersatz cycle path is constantly overrun by double-parked cars or vans.
A pedestrian / bicycle bridge in Chalifert, in Seine-et-Marne
To remedy this problem, it is in particular planned to fill the hopper under the first crossroads on the way out of Paris to calm traffic, save space and create real secure tracks on either side of the road axis.
"We will no longer have to zigzag on the sidewalks or between cars", hopes Ahmed, one of the bicycle delivery men among the few cyclists to venture into the area.
Securing dangerous crossings or reducing “cycle discontinuity” are the other types of projects that will benefit from State subsidies.
The Pompadour crossroads in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), described as a real hell for cyclists (and not only), will thus be equipped with a real secure track protected from motor traffic.
Associations demand more
In Seine-et-Marne, a new pedestrian / bicycle bridge will be built over the canal from Meaux to Chalifert.
A bicycle footbridge is also in the works in the Sénia industrial zone in Thiais (Val-de-Marne).
And the development of "greenways" is programmed in Chaumontel, in the Val-d'Oise or along the banks of the Seine for nearly 4 km in Mesnil-le-Roi in the Yvelines ...
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"That the State helps the municipalities which make arrangements for bicycles to complete their work budgets is a very encouraging sign", recognizes Louis Belenfant, president of the Ile-de-France bicycle committee.
The representative of the influential organization which brings together 37 cycling associations, however, is careful not to be too enthusiastic.
Firstly, because the funding of € 17.2 million (ie an average aid of € 780,000 per project) is obviously not sufficient to cover all the needs.
Secondly, because the State's boost to the development of cycling must not stop there.
Paris (18th century), boulevard d'Ornano.
The State will participate in the development of safer cycle paths near the Porte de Clignancourt.
/ LP / Charlotte Tap
“There were 170 km of coronapistes fitted out in Ile-de-France last year.
They are far from being all perpetuated, ”notes Louis Belenfant.
Jean-Sébastien Cattier, president of the Paris en selle association, also relativizes the scope of the financial boost from the State.
“It is a pity that the State does not go further in financing a mode of transport which costs so little.
17 M €, it is about twenty kilometers of cycling facilities… or a few hundred meters of the Grand Paris express!
”Good but could do better.