A new study attempts to distinguish the most pleasant French cities for cycling, where the result is clearly at the top of the ranking.
If the place of bicycles and electric bikes is still fragile in the streets, many cities are fighting to become the reference in France. To judge, many studies analyze Europe, but more rarely within our French borders. A new study from Buycycle, a used bicycle resale platform, wants to give its vision for 2024. It is based on numerous factors:
- The length of cycle paths,
- The relief of the regions,
- The number of bicycle stores,
- Sharing stations,
- The general feeling of cyclists established by the FUB
- Pollution
- The number of rainy days
- Traffic.
With this data, Buycycle has established a ranking of the 20 best large French cities, out of 40 in total.
Paris, best city by bike
Capital, Paris is also the capital of cycling according to the results, with a score of 5.75 out of 8. Largely superior to the pursuers, it stands out for its impressive number of cycle routes indicated at almost a million km (knowing that the Parisian network totals 1,700 km). Paris would also display “185 bike shops and 127 bike sharing stations”while the overall feeling of cyclists is 3.33 out of 5.
Second, Lyon with its score of 4.46 is close on this data, but penalized by 5 times fewer cycle routes. And the study specifies that the difference in altitude of 172 meters makes the city the most sporty in the Top 5, with a superior feeling (3.51).
The latter is even higher in Strasbourg (4.18), third with almost as many cycle routes as Lyon. Bordeaux narrowly misses the podium, despite more than 80 stores and shared bike stations, with Montpellier rounding out the Top 5 with its low pollution and drier climate (therefore more conducive to cycling).
Loved Grenoble… but not here
It is therefore missing the most bike-friendly city, Grenoble having obtained 4.21 on this criterion. As the leader in Europe in shared cycling, it is only 15th in the ranking of this study. Ditto for Lille, queen of bike sharing stations (197) and 8th in the list. Note that each factor is rated from 0 to 1, and that certain cities obtain a 0 score if the data is missing.