“The position is at the crossroads of politics and technology. We touch everything, we never get bored. » Secretary General of the Club of Cycling and Walking Towns and Territories (CVTCM), which brings together 220 local authorities, Catherine Pilon, an urban planner by training, has made her passion, “cycling trips”, his job. Elected in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) until 2020, ecologist, she was recruited a few months later to this strategic position.
Florian Le Villain, vice-president of the Rennes association Rayons d’action until 2021, is now an employee of Solcy, a planning consulting company created by Charles Maguin, who himself founded and then chaired the Paris association. in the saddle. And Samy Guyet, former coordinator for Ademe (Ecological Transition Agency) and pillar of the Nantes association Place au vélo, created RésilienCités two years ago.
The sharp increase in cycling, confirmed since the start of the pandemic, is arousing vocations. Activists who, a decade ago, struggled to get an appointment with a transport assistant, now determine the cycling strategy of communities.
“Ethical conversion”
Some of them, from Annecy to Périgueux, from Meylan (Isère) to Faches-Thumesnil (Nord), have even taken the place of the elected officials they once sought to convince. This trend reaches its climax in the metropolis of Lyon, where many elected environmentalists responsible for mobility, starting with the vice-president of the metropolis, Fabien Bagnon, campaigned until 2020 within the association La Ville à vélo.
“The bicycle sector attracts people because it meets a need for meaning and commitment. » Sébastien Marrec, doctoral student in urban planning and development
Provélo associations function as reservoirs. The activists, by dint of surveying the streets of their city and exchanging with their peers, have developed a knowledge of cycling facilities that surpasses that of the technicians in place. “Observing uses, understanding facilities or mapping them, these are things that we do naturally when we are active in an association”, testifies Samy Guyet, in Nantes. “The profession of cycle planner, for which there is no training, is being created empirically”, summarizes Roman Ville, urban planner and consultant in “active modes” (walking and cycling) at Inddigo, one of the leading firms in the sector.
“In the Netherlands, back and forth between procycling associations and the professional or political world are frequent”, points out Sébastien Marrec, doctoral student in town planning and development. In addition, “the bicycle sector attracts people because it meets a need for meaning and commitment”, he continues. Among the many applications he receives, Roman Ville, at Inddigo, notes this desire to “ethical reconversion”.
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