Between the municipality and the cyclists who claim more consideration in the city, it is a sometimes complicated dialogue. A “Vélorution” gathered several dozen people this Friday at the end of the afternoon.
It was a meeting at Niort town hall on Thursday morning that ignited the powder. In the office of mayor Jérôme Baloge, a group of traders who came to ask for the removal of a cycle lane, provisionally established in May 2020, rue du 24-Juillet.
When he heard the news, Vincent Guérin-Rousteau jumped up: “It is out of the question to eliminate this cycle path which is very practical and which is real progress for us.” “It is a very bad signal sent for all the cyclists of the city “concludes the one who has recently been one of the spokespersons for VilloVélo.
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“Haussmann did not go everywhere”
It must be said that relations between the municipality and the association which works for the promotion of two-wheelers in the prefecture of Deux-Sévrienne have been strained in recent months. Lack of lasting arrangements, insecurity, lack of dialogue, there is no lack of grievances. “The municipality has been in place for eight years and we still have no bike plan whereas we have the feeling that a lot of things are done for the car, with free hours of parking in the city center and easy circulation. “
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Are cars more favored than bicycles in Niort? Criticism is swept away by Jérome Baloge. “Mobility is necessarily more complicated today with shared spaces” argues the mayor who recognizes some difficulties especially due to the topography of the city where some streets are very narrow.
The subject advances but it is true that it is long. Haussmann did not go everywhere.
However, he recalls that nearly 1,000 TAN bicycles are currently in circulation in Niort and that the rental of two-wheelers will develop further.
“Just a lick of paint”
Proof that the question is delicate, the future of the famous 24-February cycle lane has not been sealed. At the end of the interview with the collective of traders, Jérôme Baloge decreed the status quo, the time to seek the opinion of the municipal mobility commission. The associative actors including VilloVelo will therefore be consulted on the subject.
It is not certain that this is enough to calm the anger of daily bicycle users like Vincent Guérin-Rousteau who denounces a city “lagging behind”. “There are a lot of cycle lanes in Niort but it’s just a lick of paint on the road that doesn’t protect us. In addition, cars are parked there. Nothing to do with cycle paths, separated from the road by a small border. ”
????????large #velorution To #Niort this Friday, September 10, 2021.
???? Meet at Port-Boinot 5.30 p.m. for an improvised return trip to the station????
Prepare your slogans, your voice and let’s be many!#the return #Critical mass????????????@e_niort @NRNiort @villovelo @coNiort pic.twitter.com/aCcl6Gqc5y— VelorutionNiort (@VelorutionNiort) September 8, 2021
A sign of this growing discontent, a call to “a great Cycling“was born from a collective of” ordinary citizens “on social networks. The Niort cyclists wishing to” show that they exist in the city “met this Friday evening at 5.30 pm for a circuit in the station district using the rue du 24-Juillet … obviously The procession was made up of several dozen people.
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