Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne pleads for a “bicycle nation”

Matignon announced, on Tuesday, a new “bike plan” with a budget of 250 million euros for 2023, adding to the 900 million already invested since 2018.

By

In the courtyard of the Matignon hotel, around twenty children, dressed in an orange vest and a yellow helmet, pedal around the colored studs arranged on the pavement, indifferent to the golds of the Republic and discussions serious people. Among these, no less than six ministers, whose first of them, lean at their height and ask them rather easy questions: “Do you know how to go bike?”, “Did you learn when?” p>

A few minutes later, Clément Beaune (Transports), Christophe Béchu (ecological transition), Sarah El Haïry (youth), Roland Lescure (industry), Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (Sports), and the head of the Elisabeth Borne government To the students of Jouy-le-Moutier (Val-d’Oise), Pradet and Collobrières (Var), their diploma of “knowing how to ride by bike”. They learned to pedal, manage in traffic and know the rules.

In Matignon, Tuesday, September 20, Elisabeth Borne wanted to personally announce a new “bicycle plan”, four years after that launched in September 2018 by her predecessor Edouard Philippe. She was then “only” Minister of Transport and had supervised the development of this program. “We wanted to be a” bicycle nation “”, she recalls today in the court of Matignon.

This commitment is old. At the end of 2017, when she concluded the “mobility foundations”, a consultation intended to encourage “everyday mobility”, Elisabeth Borne had surprised public transport players by proclaiming: “You have to stop looking at cycling with condescension , considering that it is a minor subject “.

In addition to the development of “knowing how to ride by bicycle”, which have already benefited 180,000 children and which must concern 800,000 each year, the “bicycle plan” has a budget of 250 million euros for 2023 . This amount is added to the 900 million invested since 2018, according to Matignon, in the form of funds paid to communities, support for local investment and energy saving certificates funded by polluting companies.

a lack of human resources

However, this amount of 250 million euros would not be as exceptional as it looks, according to Sébastien Marrec, researcher in development and town planning. “In 2022, by integrating the funds of the recovery plan, the total investment has undoubtedly already reached this order of magnitude. In Italy, the budget is equivalent and the United Kingdom, under Boris Johnson, invested 2 billion pounds [2.3 billion euros] in 2020 “, observes the specialist.

You have 41.74% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.

/Media reports.