A
Artemisia
Guest
Article in today's FIGARO (in French) with some nice video and blog
material:
http://tinyurl.com/3xxjea
The upshot is that Velib, the Parisian public bike scheme, has been a
huge success and has already resulted in a significant multiplication
of the number of cyclists on the streets, which will become even more
dramatic with the September "Rentrée" (because in France everyone is
out of town at the same time). Whereas poor cycling practises (riding
on sidewalks, against traffic, running red lights, etc.) were
previously more or less tolerated or ignored, police have now been
instructed to crack down on cycling infractions to keep order and to
make sure that the transition towards a cycling city happens
peacefully. They will also show less tolerance to motorists who
endanger cyclists, e.g. parking in cycling lanes.
Overall, sounds like a good thing. I prefer that this be a recognized
traffic control issue rather than seeing it fester into "lycra lout"
behavior on one hand, and mortiferous motorist sense of outraged
entitlement on the other, as it has in the UK. OTOH it probably means
that I will never be able to cycle in Paris, despite my subscription
to Velib, due to my inability to do hand signals on a bike. (They
don't seem to recognize that some people just _can't_).
Cheers all
EFR
Ile de France
material:
http://tinyurl.com/3xxjea
The upshot is that Velib, the Parisian public bike scheme, has been a
huge success and has already resulted in a significant multiplication
of the number of cyclists on the streets, which will become even more
dramatic with the September "Rentrée" (because in France everyone is
out of town at the same time). Whereas poor cycling practises (riding
on sidewalks, against traffic, running red lights, etc.) were
previously more or less tolerated or ignored, police have now been
instructed to crack down on cycling infractions to keep order and to
make sure that the transition towards a cycling city happens
peacefully. They will also show less tolerance to motorists who
endanger cyclists, e.g. parking in cycling lanes.
Overall, sounds like a good thing. I prefer that this be a recognized
traffic control issue rather than seeing it fester into "lycra lout"
behavior on one hand, and mortiferous motorist sense of outraged
entitlement on the other, as it has in the UK. OTOH it probably means
that I will never be able to cycle in Paris, despite my subscription
to Velib, due to my inability to do hand signals on a bike. (They
don't seem to recognize that some people just _can't_).
Cheers all
EFR
Ile de France