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Rue Pelletier, Montmagny (picture credit Canalblog.com).PNGCyclists in Parisian suburb perplexed at speed bumps in cycle lane - but mayor says they're for their own protection
Cyclists near Paris are demanding that speed bumps installed on a cycle path in a suburb of the French capital be ripped up – although the local council says that they have been put there to protect bike riders from motorists.
Last week, a local blogger and cycling campaigner posted pictures online of the speed bumps, asking: “We all know the expression metter les batons dans les roues [to throw a spoke in the wheels].
“But we’ve just discovered an equally dangerous lunacy in Montmagny comprising bars fixed in place across a cycle path. We’re writing to the mayor to demand that he remedy this mess as soon as possible.”
The cycle path is on Rue Pelletier in Montmagny, Val d’Oise, around 5 kilometres north of central Paris.
The speed bumps, each 10 centimetres high, were put there in December, reports Le Parisien, because motorists would drive onto the cycle path especially when there was a bus stopped on the street.
Local resident, Valerie Leteignier, said that created danger not just for cyclists, but also for people living on the street itself.
"Some cars did not wait for the bus to leave and would pass on the cycle path and the pavement,” she said.
“It’s happened that my daughter, coming out of our house, has found herself face to face with a car and has been beeped!"
After a cyclist was run over by a driver on the cycle path, the local council decided to act.
The mayor of Montmagny, Patrick Floquet, said that the speed bumps had been installed in response to an “emergency” situation, and that a kerb to prevent vehicles encroaching on the cycle path will be put in place in the spring.
The temporary measures took some locals by surprise, though. Madame Leteignier said: "At a public meeting last year, the deputy mayor talked about setting up small studs but not such speed bumps. This condemns the cycle path.”
One cyclist who often rides down the street added: “It’s really weird. We can’t ride along it on the bike, so we’re forced to ride in the way of pedestrians, or otherwise on the road.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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24 comments
You couldn't make it up, could you!
Paris Roubaix actually starts in Paris this year but they couldn't get permission lay down a section of pave in the city centre. This was the next best thing.
Should have put in a camera(s) with ANPR and raised some money... after all, they are committing an offence by going out of their lane
Reading started to enforce it's bus lanes, and I believe purely council led, attitudes changed very quickly. All those people who before would break the law with impunity, started to decide not to do it. I now smile and wave at them.
Looks like the cycle lane is now not as wide as an actual bike, amazing. Would it have been too difficult to put these obstructions in the suitably wide carriageway instead?
Are all French commuters expected to cycle to work on full suspension mountain bikes now?!
Surely they should be running alongside the cycle route not across it.
I can't stop laughing , and the comments don't help !
(disclaimer I'm French)
Wonder if Copenhagen-style kerbs would help.
Why don't they just turn them 90 degrees?
I was just thinking the same, like the armadillos
That would be fine - but if you accidentally hit them - you'll be going down.
I can see WHY they have done it - but it's not the solution.
That wouldn't stop French drivers, especially Parisiens!
On which axis? Ninety degrees upwards, so they are studying on end would be alright - much like the plastic bollards that they seem to be keen on in the US
These bumps don't leave a lot of space to cycle in, even if you were right next to them, your handle bars would probably encroach over the pavement. If you had to swerve to avoid a child, animal or podestrian, you'd like come flying off into the traffic.
On the other hand, most could drive over them without doing significant damage to their vehicle, particularly if they drive a Chelsea tractor.
Just think of how much protection the cyclists would have if they didn't bother cycling!
Ten centimetres high! Bl**dy heck.
Couldn't the council have just put bollards up to protect the cycle lane, rather than putting something in place which I personally would consider extremely dangerous as well as being rather inconvenient.
I know where I'd be cycling...
If that were over here, we'd be lucky if the councils did anything at all to address the problem, so good on the Parisien council for acting on this. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!
Admittedly it does, in effect, reduce the space to about 25-30% of the original width, but there still looks to be room to get past without encroaching on the footpath (although with more than one cyclist at a time it would be practically impossible). I suppose the speed bumps need to be that wide in order to prevent cars straddling the kerb/bump.
I think if it's just temporary until a higher kerb is provided, then it's not too much to ask is it?
Are you by any chance involved in local politics?
I love French idioms. I can just imagine Madame denouncing the deputy mayor for his gross ineptitude. The spirit of Louise Michel lives on!
that translation is too literal. It just means that it blocks the path, or makes it useless.
That is just bonkers!
...and they've given cyclists enough room to cycle around them whilst still being within the cycle lane. Bonkers indeed.
Madder than a box of ... oh, hang on.