Transport funding conference: cycling must have the place it deserves

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The major debate on the future of the road and rail networks, which opens this Monday, May 5th and will continue for several months, pays little attention to the development of cycling infrastructure. Despite the growing popularity of cycling in recent years,

François Bayrou in Bordères, near Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in 2001. (Gilles Bassignac/Gamma-Rapho)

It is true that compared to the negotiations worth several billion euros over ten years or more for rail, roads and freight, the several hundred million euros of investment per year that cycling requires must have seemed much less significant to the organizers of the transport financing conference , launched this Monday, May 5 in Marseille.

But to completely skip the necessary funding for cycling, after having already frozen the cycling plan in 2024 and granted 50 million (a fifth of what was planned) in 2025, one can wonder. The various players in the so-called "active" mobility sector (those where you get moving without polluting p