• The executive announces an investment of 2 billion euros until 2027 for cycling.
  • Development of tracks, help to buy a bike, training of the little ones to drive ... The government wants to change gears to make room for the little queen.
  • Will these new facilities allow women, who are less likely than men to cycle to work, to take advantage of them?

Big money for the little queen. By 2027, the State intends to invest 2 billion euros to boost cycling. With, as the first step, the current year. As part of the 2023-2027 cycling and mobility plan, the executive promises to contribute €200 million to the creation of infrastructure in 2023.

Announcements that come at the height of the velotaf, the use of the bicycle for commuting. On the subject, investments are pouring in, but inequalities persist between men and women.

About 60% of men cycle through cities, compared to only 40% of women. For Jean-Sébastien Catier, president of Paris en Selle, two dimensions must be taken into account. "People, and therefore women, do not start cycling because they have a feeling of insecurity on the road linked to the lack of development. The other factor is more social. Women are still more responsible for taking care of children and shopping than men, which can exclude them from cycling," he notes.

"The more safe tracks there are, the more the practice becomes parity"

A statement noted by an INSEE study on the velotaf: on average, a mother spends twice as much time as a father accompanying the child over a day. Aid for the purchase of bicycles, modification of the Highway Code, a target of 100,000 kilometers of safe bike lanes in 2030 (against 57,000 today), training sessions for children for bike driving...

For Marie-Xavière Wauquiez, founding president of the professional network Women on the Move, the government plan and the promise of "beautiful separate cycling infrastructure, not just paint" is a good thing. She explains: "We know that the notion of risk-taking is much lower among women than among men, just look at the figures from Road Safety. The more safe bike paths there are, the more the practice becomes parity."

Taking this factor into account, INSEE had noticed that the more a city has bicycle facilities, the more the gap in cycling between men and women is reduced. Even if the explanations are not only related to this factor: "Women living in the most cyclable neighborhoods are also more often managers," notes the statistical institute, and therefore more likely to opt for this means of transport, according to the study.

A subject that emerges, from the road to be accomplished

"The electrification of bicycles is also an element that has encouraged women to practice. There could be a fear in women related to appearance, sweating, not being presentable. It fades with the electric bike, "says Marie-Xavière Wauquiez.

The subject of gender in cycling has emerged in recent years, "by dint of magnifying elected officials". "But, at the scale of territorial planning calendars, it is still anecdotal, there is still some way to go," says the specialist.

As proof, the tension around the debate launched last summer by the metropolis of Lyon on "non-gendered tracks", while urban developments, whose bike paths are "mostly designed by men, for men", recalled in the Obs Matthieu Adam, geographer in charge of research at the CNRS.

"The ideal cycling facility can be used by everyone. Both men and women, but also young people, the elderly, people with disabilities," says Jean-Sébastien Catier. For this dream to turn (everywhere) into reality, it will still be necessary to change gears.


  • Society
  • Bicycle
  • Mobility