Dijon boosts cycling with 1,8 million euros

The French city will earmark a significant financial amount within just a couple of months

Dijon will be further improving its cycling infrastructure with four major projects. With a total cost of 1,8 million euros, they should all be completed by early 2021. The actions of the French city are in line with its strategy to boost the share of cycling in urban mobility to at least 12% by 2030.

Dijon is already among the best French cities for cycling

For years, the Metropolis of Dijon has been engaged in promoting soft mobility forms – those that rely on the rider’s own power, instead of fuel or external energy sources. One of them is cycling – a reasonably priced alternative for many in big and densely populated areas.

Dijon is perfectly aware of the benefits of cycling, but also – of the efforts needed to turn it into a preferred mobility choice, which go through the creation of the convenient and cohesive infrastructure and improved safety for cyclists. That is why, Dijon announced the implementation of four development projects until the beginning of 2021, focused on the creation of new equipment, but also – the improved connection of existing 316 kilometres of cycling paths within the metropolitan area.

For example, one of the ongoing actions worth 215 thousand euros concerns the surroundings of the university site and its connection with the city centre of Dijon. It aims to facilitate the access of students to shared bikes.

Funds are also previewed for the securitisation of a cycling connection between Dijon and the municipality of Saint-Apollinaire ; cycling links between Sennecey-lès-Dijon and Quetigny and between Quetigny and Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur will secure exchanges between the municipalities of eastern Dijon and to link them to the existing structuring routes.

These ongoing infrastructure improvements are the subject of application for regional and European funding. Each of them should be completed before the first months of 2021.

Even without these improvements, Dijon ranks 4th among the most favourable cities for cycling in France (between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants), according to the French Federation of Bicycle Users.

The main city of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in North-eastern France has 40 shared bicycle stations in its city centre open non-stop and 107 kilometres of cycling routes. Moreover, the city authorities claim to have benefitted from the lockdown and the absence of traffic to renovate 90% of the existing paths.