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

  • Webinar: Mitigating post-Covid traffic congestion
    September 13, 2022
    Traffic congestion is nearly back to pre-Covid levels in top US downtowns - but it’s not too late to do something about it, says StreetLight
  • Destiny Thomas on transit's racist legacy
    September 25, 2020
    The killing of George Floyd by US police sparked international protests and put Black Lives Matter into the spotlight. Dr Destiny Thomas, founder and CEO of Thrivance Group, talks to Adam Hill about the legacy of racism in transit, Covid-19, slow streets – and what comes next
  • Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    August 8, 2017
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces
  • MoceanLab discovers new Covid car-share use
    October 20, 2020
    The coronavirus pandemic has prompted some radical re-thinking of mobility services. Ben Spencer hears how MoceanLab car-share vehicles are delivering care to LA's homeless