Thibaut Chardey, co-president of Ville à vélo, the association which promotes this mode of transport in Lyon, is the guest of 6 minutes chrono / Lyon Capitale.
The Métropole de Lyon recently announced the postponement of certain works in a sort of appeasement gesture. The sacrificed projects mainly concern cycle paths such as the central part of Voie Lyonnaise n°12. A decision that goes down badly with the City by Bike, the bicycle lobby in the metropolis of Lyon. “We deplore this announcement and it follows several announcements of postponement. In previous months, at the level of the Voies Lyonnaise networks, we were on a planned network of 250 km. And today, the metropolis announces rather 180 km by the end of the mandate”, notes Thibaut Chardey.
The full transcription of the interview with Thibaut Chardey
Hello everyone and welcome, you are watching 6 minutes flat, the daily meeting of the editorial staff of Lyon Capitale and today we are with Thibaut Chardey, co-president of the City by bike which is an association, we will say, the lobby cycling in the metropolis of Lyon. Bruno Bernard, in recent days, has been keen to provide some details on the extent of the work carried out in the metropolis. This is also the subject of one of the last Lyon Capitale: a lot of work until the end of the mandate. He said “we are going to scale back a little because we are aware of the inconvenience caused.” What has been abandoned is in particular a Lyonnaise route project, these bicycle highways. The central part of Route Lyonnaise 12 which would basically allow you to cross the heart of the metropolis from east to west. I imagine that for you, this is rather a very bad signal and very bad news…
Indeed, the postponement of the development of this Lyonnaise 12 route in its central part is necessarily disappointing for us. This is an axis that was particularly awaited by our members and by Lyon cyclists. One of the most traveled routes by bike in the metropolis.
To put it simply and so that everyone understands, it is the axis from Bellecour to Grange-Blanche and even afterwards to the entrance to Bron with a dedicated cycle path.
That's it, absolutely. That was the project. So today, Bruno Bernard announced the postponement of his work until 2026 at least. Indeed, today, we deplore this announcement and it follows several postponement announcements. These previous months, in terms of the Voies Lyonnaise networks, we were on a planned basic network of 250 km. And today, the metropolis is announcing 180 km by the end of the mandate.
Knowing that today, you keep a countdown on your Cyclopolis website which allows you to see where we are in terms of progress? Are we far from these 180-150 km?
Indeed, to date, there are around thirty kilometers of existing developments which will be labeled “Voies Lyonnaise”. Around thirty kilometers of new developments which have already been completed to date, therefore in three years. We have around 60 kilometers which have been postponed, already announced and carried over to a future mandate, to which we will have to add this Lyonnaise route 12 on the Albert Thomas course. And we would still have today, in all theory, around a hundred kilometers of Lyonnaise route to develop in one year, in 2025. For you, is that impossible to do? It seems complex in any case. That's why today we have a new postponement announcement coming, since that actually means very important parallel projects to carry out. And so, we realize that building 100 kilometers of new cycling facilities across the metropolis seems complicated in a single year. We hope that the maximum, in any case, can be done, since the expectation is high. And we hope that this project will continue in a future mandate, regardless of the political team in charge, since it is a project which is very envied and which today is very desired by a large part of the Great Lyonnais.
Which is also described, and ultimately this is perhaps one of the reasons why Bruno Bernard put this project on hold, since he explained that it was ultimately so as not to add work to the work, understanding that It could become complicated with the growing exasperation of the inhabitants of the metropolis. Do you think that's really it, or that there are also perhaps financial problems in the metropolis of Lyon, as all communities are subject to the turn of rigor imposed by the State? Or even the technical incapacity, perhaps, to do so, financial and technical…
I think there are several elements that explain this. We actually probably have a financial aspect, where the metropolis has had to tighten its belt for the year 2025, linked in particular to the drop in revenue linked to real estate transactions, which is a significant revenue stream for the departments, like the metropolis. And so who asked everyone in this department to tighten their belts. So cycling must actually be part of the efforts. There's no reason why we shouldn't make efforts on the bike side. So that's one of the reasons. There is also probably the fact that we arrive, as I said, with a sort of traffic jam on the Lyon track. We are going to do at the same time with around a hundred kilometers to cover in a year, which seems like a lot. But which also follows a long phase of consultation of the metropolis, with elected officials, citizens, traders, which meant that the project fell behind schedule. Since the metropolis wanted to do well. So when we often say that the metropolis did not consult on mayonnaise for two years, not much happened precisely because the metropolis spent a lot of time consulting all the stakeholders, including us the city by bike. And so today, the projects have fallen a little behind the initial schedule which was announced during the consultations. And so indeed, we find ourselves with a lot of projects which seem difficult to achieve all at the same time, in one year, whereas we have only achieved 30 kilometers in three years.
Ultimately, isn't there perhaps a political problem for environmentalists? On the one hand, motorists have the impression that there are many more cycle paths, that there are only Lyon lanes, that everything has been done for cyclists. And on the other hand, when we listen to you, who are ultimately one of the spokespersons for cyclists, you say, there are things that have been done, but then the content is not yet that. Or in any case, the promise is not delivered. Is there not a risk of ultimately disappointing both sides?
This is the pace of a project as ambitious as the Lyon roads, because it must still be said that the current metropolitan majority has been extremely ambitious on this project. 150 kilometers to be removed from cycle networks in one mandate was extremely ambitious. We realize today that the ambition was a little too big, and that indeed, cyclist associations like us, we are inevitably going to be a little disappointed compared to the initial announcements which had been made on the real network which will exist in 2026 during municipal and metropolitan elections. Now that we have said that, at the same time, in fact, deploying such a network is a nuisance, very clearly. So it creates work. The work is there. Even if the ambition is lowered a little, this work is very numerous. And we see, indeed, the comments in Lyon society prove it. Now I think that, in any case, this work is necessary. That is to say that we need, there are more and more of us in the metropolis of Lyon to get around, and therefore to be able to move efficiently, to be able to relieve congestion on both the roads and public transport. common, we need mass cycle routes to put as many people as possible on bikes, and so that everyone can find their place and get around the metropolis as best as possible.
