Geovelo has drawn up an annual report of new cycle paths, in km and by region. His study also focuses on the amount of parking spaces per 1000 inhabitants. We take stock.
Geovelo is a mobile application that seeks to provide cyclists with the best possible route according to the cycling facilities present on your route. When configuring a route, this tool offers you three choices, for example: the most balanced, the safest or the most direct.
This service also has calculation and analysis tools, on which it relied to carry out a study on 12 regions of France. The idea: to count the number of cycle paths added between January 2022 and January 2023, to draw up a complete assessment. Their work also focuses on bicycle parking.
Great year 2022 from the Great East
Before even going into details, it is worth dwelling on one point: Geovelo is talking about cycle paths here. However, cycle paths are considered as an infrastructure in their own right within cycling facilities. There are also greenways, cycle lanes or even two-way cycle routes.
The study does not specify whether only cycle paths were taken into account here. This is undoubtedly an abuse of language to name the cycle facilities as a whole.
Still, between January 2022 and January 2023, the region which installed the most cycle paths in kilometers is the Grand Est: an additional 388 km, followed closely by Hauts-de-France (380 km) and the Occitania (351 km). In terms of percentage increase, the top 3 are changing slightly.
It is indeed Normandy that is doing the best (+ 8.26%, from 3240 to 3507 km), closely followed by Hauts-de-France (8.23%, from 4620 to 5000 km) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (+7.37%, from 1913 to 2054 km). In last position, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (+ 1.22%, from 3598 to 3611 km) is more timid.
A high density of tracks in Île-de-France
Another interesting data is the density of cycle paths per 100 km2. Unsurprisingly, Île-de-France takes the lead with 38.7 km of slopes, far ahead of Brittany (16.4 km) and Hauts-de-France (15 km). This region is logically boosted by the city of Paris, which has been transformed since the Covid in terms of facilities.
The amount of parking is also part of the spectrum of the study, which ranks the Pays de la Loire in first place with 14.63 places per 1000 inhabitants. Behind, Île-de-France is doing well with 14.27 places, ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with 12.66 places.
In Île-de-France, it will be interesting to observe the evolution of this figure by 2024, since the town hall of Paris intends to add 10,000 temporary parking spaces at the level of the Olympic sites. Then, these places will be redistributed to sports centers, schools or municipal facilities.
The department of Seine-Saint-Denis also plans to add 3,000 permanent parking spaces around Stade de France, which should inflate future figures.
2023 placed under the sign of the bicycle
If these data allow us to get a good idea of the health of French cycling, they also and above all correlate with the use of the tracks recorded in 2022. The annual report of Vélo & Territoires recorded an increase of 8%, boosted by the areas urban areas where the number of passages had jumped by 10%.
At the national level, the State wishes to maintain this momentum: it has therefore announced a bicycle plan of 250 million euros specially allocated to the year 2023. On the program: to build ever more tracks and secure car parks, but also develop a made in France bicycle industry.
In France, the bicycle has a bright future ahead of it.
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