Cycling in Paris: for David Belliard, "there is still a long way to go to make a 100% cycling city"

David Belliard has been transport assistant for the City of Paris since June 2020. While the 250 million euro Vélo plan is underway, he pleads for "high level of service" facilities, adapted to the sharp increase in attendance. .

Isn't the Parisian cycle network inaugurated in 2019 already outdated in relation to needs?

DAVID BELLIARD.

It is true that there is a boom in attendance in the spring.

On Rivoli, there are 80,000 passages per week.

On Sevastopol, we are almost at 100,000!

We can clearly see that there is a strong demand.

It is all the same a sign of the success of the policy we are pursuing.

All cyclists know that things are changing dramatically.

But there is still a long way to go to make Paris a 100% cycle-friendly city, with comfortable trails that are adapted to their use.

This is the reason why our €250 million Cycling plan sets track network objectives, in Paris and in mainland France, where there are still too many discontinuities.

Nobody says everything is fine.

But, precisely, our action aims to improve the cycle paths in Paris and to create new ones.

Read alsoBicycle: undersized facilities, indiscipline... in Paris, traffic jams are multiplying

Boulevard de Sébastopol, one of the busiest cycle routes in the world, appears undersized.

How to improve the north-south circulation?

This track has been a victim of its own success.

It is a structuring axis but which is not wide enough in places.

To travel from north to south, today, there is only Sevastopol, roughly speaking.

Tomorrow, we will have routes on other secure tracks, such as rue Beaubourg (Paris IIIe) and rue du Renard

.

More generally, we are undertaking work on the Boulevard de Sébastopol itself, within the framework of the limited traffic zone.

Ecologist David Belliard, transport assistant for the City of Paris.

LP/Delphine Goldsztejn

In the future, shouldn't we create much wider tracks?

We are progressing in terms of engineering.

The leads we deliver today are high service leads.

Whenever we can, we try to make tracks that are wide enough, at least 2.50 m for the one-way ones, which allows cargo bikes to pass, the use of which has become massive.

The tracks of today have nothing to do with those of ten years ago.

I hear the criticisms, the solutions are not always perfect.

But public space in Paris is limited.

We must make new uses cohabit, by reducing the place of the car, while allowing buses to continue to circulate.