more than 200 people gathered for the cycling event
The cause to bring people together. This Saturday, September 25, 2021, a cycling event took place in Toulouse. This Cycling was organized by a dozen groups such as Greenpeace Toulouse, ANV COP 21 Toulouse, Alternatiba Toulouse, France Nature Environnement Midi-Pyrénées or even Two Feet Two Wheels. Their objective: “denounced the delay in local soft mobility policies in Toulouse”. More 200 people took part in this gathering.
“We were around 300 at the height of the demonstration. People arrived from everywhere, but mainly from Toulouse. It was very multigenerational. There were young people, children, families with cargo bikes, older people “, indicates Ariane Laude, spokesperson for the inter-collective organizing committee for Vélorution in Toulouse. The procession of bicycles was therefore quite large. “The volunteers made the traffic,” says Ariane.
The ambitions of the collectives for cycling in Toulouse
But this did not encounter any problems. “In particular, we have had conflicts between cyclists and motorists,” Ariane reports. During this Velorution, the demonstrators drove from the Grand Rond to the Pradettes district. A journey far from having been left to chance. The organizers organized in local terms “that the measures put in place in Toulouse Métropole in cycling infrastructure are too weak and unequal between the different districts of the city”.
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For them, “the Metropolis does not show sufficient will in the deployment of these infrastructures”. “We are pushing for a change of course. We need a lot more ambition,” said the spokesperson. The collectives particularly want the creation of an express bicycle network (REV), a Pont Neuf reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, two-way cycle routes or even access to the hyper-center reserved for pedestrians and exceptions.
The recent replacement of worried Philippe Perrin
But their privileged interlocutor at the town hall and in the metropolis has just seen each other withdraw its municipal delegations. Philippe Perrin, the Toulouse city councilor recently delegated his disappointment with the mayor’s political line on ecology. He will be replaced. “Philippe Perrin was willing and attentive. It was the ecological prudence of the metropolis. This is not a good sign. This means that the ecological line is not heard,” said Ariane.
Pour information, Maxime Boyer will now be responsible for traffic and parking, cycling and pedestrian paths, new mobility and the development of a street code, relations with Toulouse Métropole concerning Toulouse roads and Jean-Michel Lattes will act as interim delegation for travel and new forms of mobility for Toulouse Métropole, including the policy in favor of cycling and active modes and the programming of green networks and cycle networks.