A cyclist on a new mixed route open to bicycles and buses -
N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse
In Montpellier, transitory cycle paths are flourishing.
There are 7.52 km of separate lanes, and 9.82 km of mixed lanes, destined to be made permanent.
The municipality and the metropolis of Montpellier want a better "sharing" of the road between the different modes of transport: pedestrians, bicycles, cars ...
But for motorists, these lanes are sometimes synonymous with traffic jams.
In Montpellier (Hérault), yellow, sometimes red, plots have been blooming on the avenues for several months.
The municipality and the metropolis have set up temporary cycle paths, heralding consolidated cycle facilities.
But where is the Hérault capital heading in terms of lanes reserved for cycling?
Michaël Delafosse (PS), new mayor and president of the intermunicipal association, made a commitment during the municipal campaign to create 300 km of cycle paths, on a metropolitan scale.
Today, there are just over 160 km.
“When we were elected, we perpetuated the experimentation on transitory cycling facilities,” explains Julie Frêche (PS), elected metropolitan in transport and active mobility.
This corresponds to 7.52 km of separate lanes and 9.82 km of mixed lanes ”, where buses, bicycles or even emergency vehicles share the road.
"The ambition is to make these developments final, but we still need to consolidate the data, and the attendance figures", notes the elected.
At the same time, Montpellier is working to erase the discontinuity of cycle paths, a real plague in the Hérault capital, which makes cyclists bitch.
"We are in a period of change"
What about the car in all of this?
Because for motorists, these new cycle paths very often divide the traffic lanes in half.
“Before, Montpellier was already congested, it will inevitably be worse, notes Serge Viguier, president of the Federation of taxis of Hérault.
For us, and for the customers, it's a waste of time.
For now, there are tensions at certain times.
But when everyone is really back to work, in a few days it may get very complicated.
"
For Manu Reynaud (EELV), the deputy mayor in charge of the new traffic plan, “we are in a period of change”.
"The traffic jams are like the cold, there is the cold, and the cold felt," he confides.
There are traffic jams, and felt traffic jams.
We are not in Marseille, nor in Paris.
We are well aware that there are genes, which are due to practices that must change.
We want to give the city back to the inhabitants, to pedestrians, to bicycles, ”notes Manu Reynaud.
A bicycle on a transitory cycle path, on the Pompignane - N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse
"We understand very well that some people have to take the car," adds Julie Frêche.
What we want is to expand the transport offer.
There must be a sharing of the roads between the pedestrian, the cyclist and the automobile.
There is no question of banning the car in Montpellier, but of sharing the roads.
"In the coming days, a communication campaign is planned to explain to residents this" sharing "of the road which is revolutionizing the Montpellier landscape.
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