Dijon is the second most “walkable” French city with 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. This is one of the results of an online questionnaire unveiled this Tuesday, September 7. Beyond the ranking, the study lists the improvements expected from pedestrians to improve their lot in the city.
The first edition of the barometer of “walkable” cities was unveiled this Tuesday, September 7, 2021. This study was launched by the Place aux pedestrians collective, grouping together the French Hiking Federation, the 60 Million Pedestrian Association and Rue de l’énergie.
The French were questioned via a questionnaire available online between December 2020 and March 2021. Nearly 40,000 responses were analyzed. These do not constitute a representative sample of the population, but their large number allows, according to the collective, to draw “new lessons on the uses of walking, the characteristics of pedestrians and their needs”.
200 municipalities were thus observed with a magnifying glass. It emerges from the barometer that Dijon and Besançon are among the good pupils of the cities of their category (common between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants).
The Burgundian capital thus comes second in the barometer, behind Annecy and ahead of Metz. Like Besançon, it obtains a grade of C, on a scale from A + (excellent) to G (very unfavorable). You have to go to smaller municipalities to find better grades than C.
The place of pedestrians in question
“It’s a little above average rating but we shouldn’t focus on it, notes Christian Germain, from the Rue de l’Avenir association. We have to go into detail and look at what Dijon pedestrians have said. Overall, like all pedestrians in France, they do not always feel well taken into account. “
Security is the main concern of those interviewed. Nationally, 59% of people who responded to the questionnaire find it pleasant to walk around their town. But 69% complain that the terraces where the displays spill over onto the sidewalks, while 67% complain about the parking of cars in spaces reserved for pedestrians.
6 out of 10 respondents think that car traffic is a nuisance, while a little more than half of the respondents think that cycling facilities constitute a factor of insecurity.
“The pedestrian must find his place, because he has no specific place in the city, details Marie-Odile Fourney, from the French Hiking Federation. There are places for cars, for trams, for bicycles but the pedestrian does not have a diagram to circulate in the city […] Sidewalks are not enough, because there are bike paths above them, cars that are parked. Sidewalks are either nonexistent or very narrow.“
“The population of cities will in a few years be mostly seniors, complete Christian Germain. They are the most fearful, they fear cohabitation with bicycles. They are also the ones who are the most victims of traffic accidents involving motorized vehicles “,.
To go beyond the finding from the barometer, the members of the Place aux Pedestrians collective have planned to organize a National Assises for walking in the city, on September 17 in Marseille.
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