In association with the General Insurance Agents and with the support of road safety, France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire offers a special day “well seen together” this Friday, October 27th. The opportunity to question is the safety of cyclists in Saint-Etienne.
The transition to winter time takes place this weekend. It is synonymous with a significant increase in the number of road accident victims, especially among the most vulnerable, pedestrians and cyclists. Indeed, the night falling an hour earlier, pedestrians and cyclists are less visible because of this lack of brightness. AGEA and France Bleu are therefore organizing a “Well Seen Together” prevention campaign and offer our listeners a visibility kit including: a yellow reflective vest with reflective stripes, a yellow backpack with reflective stripes, a reflective bracelet, adhesives to stick on bicycle frames. Come see us this Friday.
What security in Saint-Etienne?
Good visibility is not everything. For good cycling, especially in the city, you need bike paths. And obviously, in Saint-Etienne, it misses a little. It is enough to settle at an angle of the place of the Hotel to realize the problem. First there are very few cyclists. And most importantly, they do not know where to put themselves. The first rolls on the tracks of the tram, the second on the sidewalk and Miguel, a young student, are down from his bike! Too many people, too much danger, and do not even try to convince him to take bi-directional cycling.
It’s very dangerous “- Miguel, Saint Etienne cyclist
“It’s super dangerous! I prefer to make a detour and take the streets in the direction of traffic of cars that take double-meaning,” says the Stephanotis. “And if I’m really in hurry, then I get off my bike before being honked by cars that do not understand what I’m doing there and for good reason, the signage is on the ground and they do not see it.”
So Miguel often finds himself, like others, on the tracks of the tram, yet forbidden. And it’s not just downtown that’s a problem. Pierre-Yves has been pedaling for 20 years in Saint-Etienne, but it’s been a long time since he ventured on the boulevards: “The cycling network of Saint-Etienne lacks continuity, for example on the boulevards, there is only fragments of bike paths, without continuity we have to go down often on the roadway.” With all that, Saint-Etienne is one of the biggest French cities in the field. Only 0.9% of the working population moves by bicycle in the Loire against almost 4 in Isere and even more than 6% in the Bas-Rhino.
And the town hall does not seem to really take the problem seriously. First, the physiognomy of the city is what it is. “We are not going to drop the buildings to widen the streets of the center”, assistant in charge of the town hall of Saint-Etienne. Then, the city has created 18 new kilometers of bike lanes for two and a half years thanks to the zone 30 in the city center, but these are not kilometers of protected bike paths, they are the famous double-senses that do not please cyclists without high visibility vest… Saint-Etienne does not want, like other cities, to deter cars from entering the center. “There is no question of reversing the balance of power between cars and bikes; it is not up to us to encourage people to take the bus, their feet, their car or a bike.”