2023-09-09 04:00:21
Each time the doors open, the tangle of humans and metal frames impresses those who are regarding to board the Arcachon-Bordeaux train, late in the followingnoon of Tuesday, August 29. One or two bicycles descend, letting the new passengers make their way, then, with forceps, they are hoisted back onto the train. Their wheels rub once morest the legs of the passengers on the entrance platform, wriggle in the air, the bicycles held vertically, intermingle in the saturated “bicycle space”…
A small space distinguished by the sticker “3 bikes max”, slightly out of step with the situation. In the car, the tension makes the silence thick. Cyclists try to make themselves small; other users, to bear the discomfort. But their stoicism reaches its limits. “Ah! yeah, there are bikes…”one of them grumbles as he goes upstairs, while another sighs: he has to perform a gymkhana to access the toilets. “A lady even called the railway police in front of me onceremembers Jérôme, a strong man in Bermuda shorts, a professional builder. She had broken her arm on a train earlier, tripping over a bike, so she didn’t want to see any more near the entrance doors. The other users came to my defense. They know very well that when you leave work you won’t expect an empty train! »
In one jump, the forty-year-old gets up from a folding seat to unblock his mountain bike from the unstable pile – a cyclist who arrived earlier must get off. « It’s been six years, he counts, that I combine bike and rail on this line. It takes will… We are asked to limit our C0₂ emissions, but there is no infrastructure to allow this. » Two bicycle spaces for six places, theoretically, in this regional express train (TER).
Take care of each other
“I often struggle with controllersadmits Marc, a 43-year-old territorial civil servant, his late black cycle at his side. Especially from June to September, when cycle tourists and people from Bordeaux arrive who walk around the Arcachon basin. There is a dissonance between our desire to “velotafer” [se rendre au travail à vélo] and the place given to us. » “The transition isn’t going fast enough!” », exclaims Manu, 27, under a flowered cap, still marked by the recent vision of a young cyclist in tears, prohibited from boarding by inspectors overwhelmed with bicycles.
Bordeaux terminus. Head to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional council. Renaud Lagrave, the vice-president of transport and mobility, makes no secret of the problem: “I receive a message every half hour from a user annoyed by bicycles, who asks for them to be banned. But also letters from cyclists who were unable to board the TER. And I have to take care of each other. » In the region, TER ridership has increased by a large third since 2019, with now 10% to 15% of travelers arriving pushing a bicycle. ” Cohabitation, summarizes Renaud Lagrave, is extremely complicated, all year round. »
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