If we are to believe the results of the latest “Barometer of cycling cities” by the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB), the relationship between Valenciennes and the practice of cycling in the city remains – let’s say – “complicated“. This year, the city of Valenciennes received a G rating, the lowest rating on the barometer, corresponding to the opinion “very unfavorable“. However, the municipality – under the leadership of Laurent Degallaix – is making efforts. In recent years, while many roads have been requalified, the place of cycling has always been taken into account by the installation of cycle paths or lanes. After the boulevards Watteau and Pater, the Boulevards Saly and Beauneveu have just been equipped with 1.9 km of additional cycle paths. But nothing helps: at the level of the Valenciennes barometer, whose 2021 result is the result of the participation of 151 contributors, it still does not take off.
“Shared and peaceful areas”
To be completely objective, there is a Valencian element to take into account. Namely, the narrowness of the streets of its hypercentre. This is particularly the case in what is known as Old Valenciennes (Rue des Ursulines, Askièvre, du Grand Fossart, etc.), a part of the city which is currently undergoing redevelopment work. In all, 17 streets are affected by this program at a cost of 3.5 million euros. As part of this work, the place of the bicycle has – it seems – been placed at the center of the reflections. With this equation: make bicycles, cars and pedestrians coexist in these narrow streets resulting from the urban typology of Valenciennes.
But a choice has been made. And this will consist in particular in reducing the grip of the car and widening the sidewalks in these 17 streets. The road narrows. “The car will have just enough room to pass. It will be like a zone 20 in disguise where the bike will have priority. If a car finds itself behind a bicycle, it will not be able to overtake it and will have to ride at the pace of the bicycle. This is what is done a lot in Lille or Grenoble, for example“, explains Laurent Degallaix. The mayor of Valenciennes evokes “a shared and peaceful area“, “with limited speed and cohabitation between bicycles, pedestrians and cars. And where the bike will be priority in principle“. Laurent Degallaix wants to be intransigent on the issue: “For motorists who do not like it, they will no longer come by car here. It’s like that“. Through these narrowings of the automobile roadway in these 17 streets of the hypercentre, Laurent Degallaix also sees with a good eye the end of “wild parking lots“, as well as the disappearance “horrible plots that weigh down the city budget“.
“We cannot systematically oppose all modes of travel. Each solution will necessarily be at the expense of one of the users. And we think that this solution is the right one because it allows us to secure the pedestrian, to constrain the speed without having to put speed bumps, and to allow bicycles to have priority“, continues the mayor. Who if he can’t”push the city walls“, considers it necessary “to change people’s behavior“. “And it takes time“, he adds. Aware that the “cars in town and everywhere” lobby is still very present in Valenciennes.
“I do not deny that we still have work to do in this area. I know how to recognize the weaknesses we may have. But you have to know that we are starting from afar. And it would be unfair to say that nothing is done“, believes Laurent Degallaix.
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