On foot or nothing. At the beginning of October, the Lille town hall issued a municipal decree requiring users of personal transport vehicles, motorized or not, to carry or walk alongside their mounts in the pedestrian sector of the city center. A decision which had made the elected representatives of the environmentalist opposition and users jump, some of whom had also taken the administrative court to request the suspension of this decree. No effort, at least for the first round.
A combination of circumstances, the decision of the judge of the administrative court fell on Thursday, at the same time as the details of the big departure from Lille of the 2025 cycling Tour de France were revealed. In his orderthat 20 minutes was able to consult, the magistrate concluded that the users’ request was rejected, in particular because the urgent nature of their request was not demonstrated.
Three arguments swept aside by the court
Basically, the court does not follow cyclists who become pedestrians either. Among other arguments, the applicants asserted that the decree “requires cyclists to use bypass routes, essentially made up of narrow motorways already very busy with cars, and that this will result in an increased risk of conflicts of origin. use and accidents. False for the court, which emphasizes that the only obligation is to dismount.
Another argument, this ban “risks leading to a dissuasive effect on the use of the bicycle” in favor of other means of transport, such as the car, ecologists and cyclists argued. A risk “which does not appear sufficiently characterized”, rejects the court.
The last point put forward by the applicants is the “numerous contraventions”, the challenge of which “is likely to unnecessarily burden the Lille judicial court”. The court sees this as speculation which “cannot be considered as carrying, in itself, an attack on a public interest”.