Toulouse: They demonstrate by bike to demand more cycle paths
Several representatives of associations that campaign for more cycle paths in Toulouse and the outskirts have, this Saturday, September 25, by bike. From the Grand Rond to the Pradettes.
“The easy bike against fossil fuels”. The activists of Toulouse associations, who are fighting to impose more cycle paths in Toulouse, have not only left, but the continuation in the ideas.
At the call of Alternatiba, Greenpeace, Deux Pieds Deux Roues, France nature environnement (FNE), Extinction Rebellion, Nature Pradettes […], the dissatisfied cyclists left, this Saturday, September 25 at the beginning of the afternoon of the Grand Rond, to join the Pradettes district. Cycling in order.
“We chose to go to this neighborhood for two reasons: firstly to show that there is of course infrastructure in the city, but the further away from the center, the more complicated it becomes,” explains Ariane (Non-violent action Cop 21, Alternatiba). In particular to pass the ring road by bike and the passage of the Cépière interchange which is pointed out as a black spot by the inhabitants of the district. Finally, there is also the project of an urban farm in Pradettes, we were invited by the Nature Pradettes collective ”.
Toulouse lagging behind?
For the demonstrators, “there is a delay taken by the town hall” on the cycle paths. “Six kilometers of cycle paths between 2018 and 2019, but with the coronavirus, the confinement, there has been a big cycling boom and Toulouse which, compared to other cities, gives the feeling of being lagging behind”, Ariane believes.
“The mayor has a plan to increase the place of cycling in the city, afterwards we can consider that this is not enough because there is so much delay that there would be a need to work extra hard, in Toulouse and in the metropolis, observes the municipal councilor of the opposition Aymeric Deheurles. With the express bicycle network set up by the Deux Pieds Deux Roues association, it would suffice to give the means to the town hall and the metropolis to support this movement. Everything is ready: you just have to finance and put in the means. “
As a reminder, the nine associations that promote cycling have written a forum to ask the Toulouse and metropolitan majority to review its main orientations in terms of mobility and transport, after the cancellation by the courts of the plan which provides for future developments in the agglomeration.