The Highway Code has recently evolved to allow people in wheelchairs to use cycle paths and lanes whatever the circumstances. Previously, several specific conditions had to be met for this to take place.
In November 2023, a group of elected officials belonging to the majority of the city of Paris submitted a request for “ explicitly allow the circulation of electric wheelchairs on cycle paths and green paths” as well as “two-way traffic on roads limited to 30 km/h or less», contextualizesThe Parisian.
At the start of 2024, it is now done. The ecologie.gouv site has in fact been updated to take into account the aforementioned wishes. Allow us first of all to recall the initial rule which governed people in wheelchairs: we also devoted a complete file to it.
What did the old rule say?
Officially, anyone who uses a wheelchair is considered a pedestrian. At the time, the government wrote: “people in manual or electric wheelchairs are authorized to travel on the roadway and sidewalks or shoulders, but not on cycle paths“. However, one exception went beyond this rule… according to the Vienna Convention which entered into force on May 21, 1977 and ratified by France.
The Convention states: “If it is not possible to use sidewalks or shoulders or in the absence of these, pedestrians can travel on the roadway; when there is a cycle path and when the traffic density allows it, they can travel on this cycle path, but without obstructing the passage of cyclists and moped riders“.
Authorized “in all cases”
A person in a wheelchair is considered a pedestrian, so this rule also concerned them.
All this legal hodgepodge no longer needs to be. The government site is now clear:
The Highway Code therefore authorizes people in wheelchairs (manual or electric, regardless of the number of wheels) to travel on cycle lanes and paths, not only as pedestrians when the sidewalk is not usable, but in all cases.
This is excellent news for this category of users, who are increasingly using cycle paths to get around more quickly. In Paris, it is no longer at all rare to come across a person in a wheelchair on a track: guaranteeing them a new legal framework helps clarify the situation for everyone.