Françoise Rossignol is president of France’s Club des Villes et territoires cyclables
France’s club of cycle-friendly towns and territories (CVCT) and its partners have put forward ten key proposals to coincide with the country’s imminent presidential and legislative elections. What are the major issues facing active mobility in the next five years?
As one crisis follows another in the realms of health, climate, and energy, the need to decarbonise mobility and share our means of travel is becoming ever clearer. While there’s an unprecedented shift in favour of active mode transport, it still falls short of what’s needed to achieve a fundamental change in the extent to which various modes of transport are used.
With this in mind, we’ve joined forces with Alliance vélo, the French bike alliance and other stakeholders representing local authorities, the industry, and users, to propose three key measures and ten priorities to encourage cycling. The three key measures are: doubling the size of France’s cycle network to 100,000km; getting everybody on a bike, especially children, with bike-riding lessons at school; and making every locality a better, more vibrant place to live by helping it become more bike and pedestrian-friendly.
More details of these proposals can be found in our white paper: https://villes-cyclables.org/ressources/les-publications-du-club-et-de-ses-partenaires/faire-du-velo-un-atout-pour-la-france-livre-blanc-de-l-alliance-pour-le-velo; you can also read candidates’ commitments on our shared platform for discussing all things bike-related: https://elections.parlons-velo.fr/2022/presidentielle/
What are your expectations as regards EuMo 2022 and current developments in the sector?
At France’s National Public Transport Conference in Toulouse, we rounded off our Tour de France of the sector by devoting the closing keynote to it. Guillaume Gouffier Cha, who co-chairs of France’s National Politicians’ Bike-Friendly Club, announced the launch of his parliamentary inquiry into the industry. The inquiry report was submitted in early February and has already made its mark! It forms a basis that stakeholders in the sector in its broadest sense have drawn on to consider how the industry can be structured in the long term, with local authorities being fully engaged. EuMo 2022 could be a major milestone in that respect.
What will be on show in the Active Mobility Space?
As ever, the Active Mobility Space will be hosting talks, presentations, and flagship solutions bearing witness to the vibrancy and relevance of active mobility in 2022. It will be the place to meet all the major stakeholders in the sector: bike manufacturers, parking specialists, bike rental actors, design firms, and consultancies, as well as discover technical solutions such as metering and usage data. The stands are being booked up at a good pace; we’ll be unveiling details of the programme soon!
Could you give us an example of a European city you think is setting the standard in terms of active mobility?
There are many inspiring cities in northern Europe that have taken fruitful decisions resulting in better sharing of public space benefiting active mobility – and others elsewhere, too! Lowering speed limits to 30 km/h in Spain, the residential ‘superblocks’ in Barcelona, and the restricted traffic zones in Turin demonstrate that this isn’t a matter of culture but of having the political willpower to support changes in behaviour in the mid to long term. Local authorities would do well to follow these examples as they consider what’s best for their towns and cities.
