French government promises to hike bike spending to €250 million in 2023

The French prime minister's office has confirmed that the national 'bike plan' will benefit from 250 million euros of state spending next year. The plan, now in its fourth year, has a total budget of 500 million euros until 2025. An interministerial cycling committee is to be established.

Next year will see 200 million euros spent on cycling infrastructure, and a further 50 million on parking facilities for bikes.

The money will be drawn from something called the active transport fund, established in 2018 under PM Edouard Philippe, when the current Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, was responsible for the transport portfolio.

The announcement is quite technical, speaking of "a pluriannual funding envelope," which "will function in terms of a logic of contractualisation with local communities . . . to ensure that the money is targeted and spent efficiently." Indeed. One would have expected nothing less.

The size of the cash envelope has still to be defined, because the amount of money available will depend on the outcome of the global reflection on transport infrastructure to be announced by the orientation council later this year.

It wouldnt be a suprise if the hopes of cyclists suffer headwinds, punctures and some steep uphill stretches.

The interministerial cycling committee will meet every six months.

Bike users' group delighted

The Federation of Bike Users (FUB in French) is delighted at the news.

A FUB communiqué reads: "the state has never comitted so much money to developing cycling in a single year.

"It's great news because it will allow communities in rural and suburban situations to become fully involved."

Teaching kids to cycle safely

The site of the French ecology ministry says that 933 projects have already been financed under the bike plan, to the tune of 365 million euros.

But, if those 365 million are added to the 250 million for next year, it's hard to see how the plan will survive on the 500 million euros supposed to keep it going until 2025.

The money so far spent went on establishing cycle lanes, on creating secure routes for cyclists, and on linking together pre-existing portions of cycle routes.

The national bike plan also proposes to teach one entire generation of primary school children how to cycle safely. Over the past three years, 160,000 children have profited from the initiative.