• The collective "Place aux pedestrians" publishes, this Tuesday, the first barometer of walkable cities, carried out from 70,000 French responses to a large online questionnaire, and which made it possible to assess the "walkability" of 200 cities.

  • Beyond the ranking, this study lists the improvements expected from pedestrians to improve their lot in the city.

    A stake far from being negligible, whereas 23.7% of the daily journeys of the French are already made on foot.

    Very far in front of the bike.

  • Respondents place the need for widened, well-maintained and secure sidewalks as the number 1 priority.

    Which is not always straightforward.

    Less and less, even, with the emergence of other active forms of mobility?

The bicycle kilometer allowance, the national fund of 350 million euros over seven years, enacted in 2018, to accelerate the development of cycle paths, coronapistes and the bicycle boost ... 

In this concern to decarbonize our journeys - both to fight against climate change and to improve the air quality of urban areas - France has especially put the package, in recent years, on the bicycle.

To the point of making people jealous on the side of pedestrians, the other great active mobility which also combines benefits for the environment and health?

"Nothing justifies that we talk so little about walking"

At “Place aux pedestrians”, a group of three associations that promotes pedestrian travel, we warn from the outset that we are absolutely not against cycling. On the contrary. Simply, "nothing justifies that we speak so little about walking and the means to promote it", insists Anne Faure, president of Rue de l'Avenir.

So this Tuesday, the collective takes the lead by publishing the first barometer of “walkable cities”.

It is the result of an online survey, carried out from December 7 to March 15 in partnership with Ademe, during which the French were invited to assess the walkability of their municipality.

A total of 68,510 questionnaires were completed *, which made it possible to assess 200 cities.

Those for which more than 40 completed questionnaires were collected.

An unpublished document?

“Until then, we were sorely lacking in information on the needs and wishes of pedestrians”, we believe within the group where we were inspired, for this study, by the barometers of cycling towns already carried out by the Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB).

Walking, far ahead of the bike?

All the same, surveys on the mobility of French people carried out by the Ministry of Ecological Transition have already highlighted the importance of walking in our daily journeys. Of the 181 million made each day by the French (on average three per day), the car remains the most used mode of transport, with a modal share of 62.8% (out of 100 trips, 62.8% are made in car). But just after comes walking, which accounts for 23.7% of our daily trips. “A share that has increased by 1.5 points since 2008,” recalls Frédéric Brouet, administrator at the French Hiking Federation, also in the collective. For its part, the modal share of cycling is 2.7% and remained stable between 2008 and 2019.

“This first barometer of walkable towns confirms our idea that walking counts for a good number of French people,” continues Anne Faure.

They are still more than 68,000 to have taken the time to answer forty questions, we were far from expecting as many.

Among them, 62% say they practice walking every day and 54% make it their main mode of travel (work, running, administrative procedures, etc.).

"

“Rather favorable” in Strasbourg and Rennes… “Very unfavorable” in Marseille

They do it more with pleasure, since 59% of respondents find that walking in their town is pleasant. But the margins for progress remain significant. By giving marks from 1 to 6 each time, the respondents were invited to express themselves on the ease or not of getting around on foot in their municipality, their feeling of safety, the comfort of walking, the importance given to travel. pedestrian by their municipality ... "Place aux pedestrians" obtained overall scores out of 20 for each of the 200 municipalities, to then classify them into eight categories. From G for "very unfavorable" to A + for "excellent".

The average score is 9.2 / 20, which corresponds to the letter D ("moderately favorable"). Cities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants are the ones doing the best, with an average score of 10 which allows them to switch to C (“rather favorable”). On the other hand, things are getting worse for cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, for which the feelings of walkers are generally “rather unfavorable” (category E). In detail, Strasbourg and Rennes, classified in C, still pull the average up. Marseille, a rare city classified in G, as “very unfavorable”, with a score below 5.2 / 20, does the opposite. “The poorly classified are often those cities which, for years, favored the car. So much so that they do not offer - or at least not yet - an ecosystem conducive to walking, ”summarizes Anne Faure.

Wider, well-maintained and secure pedestrian paths

Beyond this list, this barometer highlights the main improvements expected by pedestrians. “Starting with that of having wider, well-maintained and secure pedestrian paths, priority number 1 regardless of the size of the municipality,” says Frédéric Brouet. This is the basis for "Place aux pedestrians", and it does not always go without saying. Even less and less? "In the detailed responses of respondents, many express their concern about the encroachment of the pedestrian square on the sidewalk," notes the administrator of FFRandonnée. This is particularly the case with the rise of new modes of mobility - scooters in the lead - “but it is also when cities hastily develop cycle lanes on sidewalks, authorize the extension of terraces, etc. », Continues Frédéric Brouet.No wonder then that the second priority expressed is to “reserve the use of sidewalks for pedestrians”.

Among the other expected improvements, Anne Faure points out the often expressed wish to "constitute a complete network of pedestrian paths in the city", "when too often, the municipalities have put the package on their city center and abandoned the rest". Otherwise, the respondents are 28% to ask for more parking tickets on pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, and 27% to want to moderate more the speed of motorized vehicles in places frequented by pedestrians. As for the incentives to walk, “the over 65s are looking for urban amenities such as toilets, benches, fountains, notes Anne Faure. While those under 35 place more emphasis on the need to vegetate urban space and improve the environment. "

Serve as a working document for further analyzes

"Place aux pedestrians" does not elude the limits of this first barometer.

"It relied on voluntary respondents, who necessarily have a subjective opinion on the walkability of cities and who do not constitute a representative sample of the French", explain Frédéric Brouet and Anne Faure.

Only 4% of respondents were under 25, for example.

Nevertheless, this study, which "Place aux pedestrians" wants to reproduce every two years from now on, can be a tool in the hands of elected officials to develop more in-depth analyzes and develop walking in the daily life of the French, wants to believe the collective .

And why not start on September 17th?

In the middle of the mobility week, “Place aux pedestrians” is organizing the first National Assises for walking in the city in Marseille.

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