Skip to main content

Bike to be ‘little queen of deconfinement’ in France

The French government has announced a €20 million scheme designed to encourage people to use their bicycles as the country emerges from lockdown.
By Adam Hill May 4, 2020 Read time: 1 min
France hails 'little queen of deconfinement' (© Rosshelen | Dreamstime.com)

People will be eligible to receive €50 which will be put towards bike repairs after strict lockdown measures are relaxed on 11 May.

Environment minister Elisabeth Borne said the government wanted this period to be a step forward in bike culture, with the bicycle becoming “the little queen of deconfinement”.

As well as offering financial incentives to individuals, the €20m will also be used for increasing space on roads for bikes and in cycling training. 

The idea is to give people alternatives to car use and public transport - measures which should ease demand on metros and buses while keeping crowded roads freer of vehicles.

The government wants to increase the public transport offering as much as possible and then “drastically reduce demand during peak hours”, Borne said.

Related Content

  • Dutch survey shows drivers are in favour of road user charging
    January 16, 2012
    'Keep it simple, stupid' is an oft-forgotten axiom but in terms of road user charging it is entirely appropriate. So says the ANWB's Ferry Smith. A couple of decades ago, it might have been largely true that the technology aspects of advanced road infrastructure were the main obstacles to deployment. However, 20 years or more of development have led to a situation where such 'obstacles' are often no more than a political fig-leaf. Area-wide Road User Charging (RUC) is a case in point; speak candidly to syst
  • HERMES Study provides guidance for forward ITS thinking in Finland
    August 25, 2016
    Having authored HERMES, a major study for the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication, Josef Czako talks to ITS International about his findings and lessons for other authorities. When CEOs of major automakers are predicting more change in the next five years than in the past 50, what is the role of national authorities considering the benefits of innovations in ITS?
  • Caltrans takes the long view of transport
    October 21, 2016
    Caltrans’ Malcolm Dougherty took time out of his schedule at ITS America 2016 in San Jose to talk to ITS International about current and future challenges. As director of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) since mid-2012, many would say that Malcolm Dougherty has one of the best jobs in transportation. Caltrans is one of the most progressive and innovative transport authorities, implementing policies to encourage cycling, piloting new
  • MaaS transit does Dallas
    October 22, 2018
    What started five years ago as a mobile ticketing app is evolving towards a full MaaS offering for the US city of Dallas, Texas. Colin Sowman finds out why and how. When it was launched in September 2013, GoPass was the first multimodal, multi-agency transit fare payment app in the US. Introduced by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dart), GoPass combines a mobile ticketing app with a trip planning function and it is also accepted by Trinity Railway Express, Trinity Metro and the Denton County Transportation