The barometer of “walkable” towns and villages has just been published. In Île-de-France, the worst rubs shoulders with excellence for pedestrians, according to the authors of the survey, who deplore that Ile-de-France municipalities favor facilities for bicycles and neglect pedestrians.
A+! This is the rating given to a municipality where pedestrians feel completely safe to walk at ease on laid out and well-maintained sidewalks. And according to these criteria defined by the “Place aux pedestrians” collective, Magny-les-Hameaux, 27 km west of Paris in the Yvelines, would seem to be a walkers’ paradise.
The ratings of this barometer range from A+ to G. 230 towns and villages were subjected to criticism from pedestrians and Magny-les-Hameaux is the only commone to obtain an A+ in Île-de-France, tied with four other municipalities in France.
At the top of the podium for the most “walkable” cities, we also find Vincennes, Versailles and Asnière-sur-Seine.
“We have been taking action for many years,” explains Bertrand Houillon, the mayor of Magny-les-Hameaux. “Ohave created public spaces where pedestrians have priority and are safe”, he details“spaces separated from cars, meeting spaces, a link for pedestrians between neighborhoods and hamlets, we have installed benches suitable for seniors which allow them to get up more easily.”
Magny-les-Hameaux, 9,500 inhabitants, is 20 minutes by car from the center of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a town designed in the 1970s, in the all-car era. Every day, a large flow of vehicles passes through the town to go to Versailles or Saint-Quentin. ” These are home-work journeys and we have reserved certain roads in the municipality for exclusively local service. explains the mayor.
Overall and concerning most of the municipalities appearing in this barometer, the lack of comfort is one of the main criticisms expressed by pedestrians. 68% of them believe that the facilities (benches, toilets, squares, etc.) to make life easier for walkers are simply absent.
This is the case, for example, in Aubervillers in Seine-Saint-Denis, located on the edge of the ring road and crossed by multiple routes. The town is classified F. And from the point of view of the pedestrians questioned, Aubervillers ticks all the wrong boxes. In particular, the lack of comfort predominates in the feelings of Albertivillarian walkers. According to the “Place aux pedestrians” collective, this lack means, among other things, the absence of signage, the presence of trash cans and poles on the sidewalks or even the untimely encroachment of cars.
In this list, Anthony, Créteil, Palaiseau, Pantin, Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole, Saint-Denis and Saint-Maur-des-Fosséset and Paris receive a very modest E.
But even lower in the ranking, the morale of the pedestrian borders on the tarmac, Alfort-Ville, Maison Alfort, Melun and Villiers-sur-Marne receive a bad rating in F. The lowest mention is awarded to Villejuif in the Val-de-Marne, classified G. The town competes at this level with…Marseille.
“In the minds of municipalities, it’s bike, bike, bike!”
For the 60 million pedestrians association, the walker remains a user”, which is not on the radar of municipalities. DIn the minds of municipalities, it’s bike, bike, bike!” ,assène Christian Machu of 60 million pedestrians, one of the associations of the “Place aux pedestrians” collective, author of this barometer of walkable cities.
Christian Machu talks about the situation in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines where he lives: ““It’s a city where it’s very difficult to walk, there’s a cycling plan, but we’re trying to make them aware of the pedestrian issue, of travel for people with reduced mobility who want to go to the Olympic sites.”
Bicycles and pedestrians in Paris • © LUC NOBOUT / MAXPPP
Christian Machu regrets that municipalities are slow to worry about “the pedestrian cause”, and points out, as the survey highlights, an increase in usage conflicts: an increasingly tense sharing of the path between walkers and two wheels.
It is in Paris that the delicate question of the conflict of use between walkers and cyclists comes up the most in the criticisms of pedestrians who took up this investigation. “Drouted by the traffic of bicycles and scooters, pedestrians feel invisible and inaudible, my tensionnte”, warns Christian Machu.
In Paris, it is the most significant, but there was a turning point at the end of the year.” he notes, “They came out with a street code, and here we are in the process of creating a real pedestrian plan with the city of Paris.” he congratulates himself, hoping that all the cities of France will follow the same path.
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