Tracing of a coronapist. (Drawing) – Christophe Ena / POOL / AFP
- For a year and the release of the first confinement, coronapists have been developing.
- In Paris, the counter was to display 50 kilometers of cycle paths of this type. In total, 65 km will be completed.
- The Ile-de-France region is not left out with twenty-two projects selected, including four in the capital.
While many works on cycle paths have taken place in Paris and several kilometers of ephemeral cycle paths called “coronapistes” have flourished over the past year, where are we with the gradual arrival of sunny days? The second confinement did not lead to new creations of cycle paths, but rather was an opportunity to perpetuate the developments resulting from the first confinement, according to a study by the Club of Cycling Towns and Territories published last February.
Among 148 communities – with 31.5 million inhabitants, and mainly rural for a third of them – questioned between November 19 and December 9, 2020, 124 worked on one or more transitional development projects in favor of active mobility, walking and / or cycling. In Paris and in the Ile-de-France region, the establishment of “coronapistes” is continuing.
17 million euros for 22 coronapist projects in Ile-de-France
“They will be perpetuated, we are working on them, first of all because they have shown that there are really a lot of users, that the bicycle has really become a means of home-work transport in Paris, and that in addition it helps to reduce pollution ”, indicated the mayor of Paris, last September. Since then, the 50 kilometers of tracks have even been exceeded, one indicates to the town hall of Paris, requested by 20 minutes.
“60 kilometers of tracks have been completed. There are still a few missing, we should arrive at 65 kilometers, ”says one. The last deliveries took place rue Claude-Bernard (5th arrondissement) and rue de la Grange-aux-Belles (10th arrondissement). Boulevard de l’Hôpital is still waiting.
The Ile-de-France region is not to be outdone. More than 17 million euros were paid by the State to the cities of Ile-de-France which had applied during a call for projects, twenty-two were selected including a quarter in Seine-Saint-Denis, and four in Paris. In the capital, this notably made it possible to develop the track which follows the route of line 13 of the metro. And this, on the same model developed for lines 1 and 4. “They are all carried out”, underlines the town hall.
All this work is carried out with the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, the president of the region and the presidents of departments with which Paris sits within Ile-de-France Mobilités. Objective: “to avoid a massive return to car use, which would lead to thrombosis of the Ile-de-France road system, and to limit the number of metro users as much as possible, by creating transport alternatives for travelers ”, we note at the Town Hall.