A collective of cyclists has placed vlo locks on the ground around the Porte de Paris roundabout. The action aims to challenge the municipality of Poitiers.
Three cyclists probably got up at dawn yesterday morning to go and paint the ground of the roundabout at the Porte de Paris. They also have vlo locks, these spaces reserved for cycles upstream of a stop sign or a traffic light.
They published their shot on social networks, under the name of the Collective SERVICE (1). On Twitter, a few words play the provocation and explain the action: Who are we? The cyclists of Poitiers! What do we want? Vlos locks and tracks! Why? Because there is none!
Throughout the morning, motorists have discovered this new marking, which is intended to be quite realistic. So much so that the bulk of the cars followed the unofficial signage.
The vlos airlock
porte de Paris
a whole symbol
The anonymous initiators are everyday cyclists. Regularly confronted with problems on certain Poitiers axes, they decided to act to challenge the municipality. The choice of an action on the Porte de Paris is symbolic, advance one of them. This is a complicated crossroads, which had been redone without considering the vlos. So many cyclists prefer to use the sidewalks rather than riding on the road. It’s a shame because a new bike path will lead to the Futuroscope. Now, from the city center, it involves going through this roundabout, which is dangerous.
The new collective hopes that its message will be heard by the public authorities and that it start again if it’s not. According to SAV, other Poitiers roads are still affected by a certain insecurity for cyclists. However, markings such as a vlos lock are not quoted infrastructures. Before proceeding: And in any case, one should not be satisfied with a simple marking on the way. It is also necessary that the mentalities evolve to allow a better coexistence between the different users. The municipality of Poitiers has been kept informed of the action of the collective service. Through her city councillor dlgu the city cycling, she assures that diagnostics are currently underway to take stock of the state of the vlo locks in the city. Some of them disappear, while other junctions require installation. We are working on it, states Frankie Angebault. As for the Porte de Paris roundabout, the installation of official vlo airlocks is not simple. It requires the consideration of many standards to ensure the safety of cyclists. Frankie Angebault illustrates the problmatic: It seems that this roundabout is one of the most complex in France.
(1) After-sales service, for Sas vlos.
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