Its name evokes more a brand of sausage than a circulation device: do you know the Chaussidou (also written “chaucidou”)? A contraction of two words – “carriageway” and “soft” – the term refers to “unmarked central lane roadways” (CVCB), a tool supposed to better take into account the needs of cyclists in and outside urban areas. Its principle: the removal of the central marking separating the two lanes of a road, and the addition of two “banks” on the sides. Cyclists and pedestrians circulate there, while cars use the single middle lane in both directions. To pass each other, the vehicles must move to the banks, staying behind the bicycles.
The Chaussidou is supposed to secure cyclists and pedestrians, and encourage the more timid to take up the bicycle. But the tool for promoting cycling is far from always making people happy. This makeshift solution – recommended by its promoters only when no other development is possible – is criticized by road users, who criticize it for its lack of clarity. On July 31, a 49-year-old cyclist died on a converted roadway, hit by a young man driving his vehicle. A little after, the Telegram, a regional newspaper, headlined this shoe deemed “ineffective” by a local association. However, this device seems more and more popular, including in large cities such as Lille, Lyon, or Le Mans.
A device for “rare cases”
Coming from Switzerland, used in the Netherlands or Germany, the Chaussidoux arrived in Europe at the end of the 20th century. In France, the first appeared in 2007 in Buc, in the Yvelines, followed by several experiments in the south-west of France, around Albi, in 2009, or in Mérignac, in the Bordeaux suburbs.
The Chaussidou really took off in 2014, under the aegis of Cerema, the Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Planning. The organization, placed under the dual supervision of the Minister for Ecological and Solidarity Transition and Territorial Cohesion, was designed in particular to support local authorities in their planning and sustainable development initiatives. Cerema thus regularly encourages the use of bicycles and soft mobility on its site, offering facilities “intended to promote and (to) secure the practice”. Among them, the Chaussidou has been the subject of several case studies by the establishment, which advises to use it only in “rare cases”, where “geometric and circulatory constraints would make it impossible to use traditional cycle facilities. (tapes, tracks…)”.
Devices little or not counted
Its installation therefore requires several conditions. “Like any cycle facility, the CVCB has employment criteria. For example, we advise communities not to add one on roads on which more than 5,000 vehicles travel per day”, explains Bertrand Deboudt, active mobility project manager and transport safety at Cerema. The width of the banks must also be approximately 1.50 meters “outside the markings”, so that the bicycles can feel safe when they are overtaken by vehicles. Finally, the speed must be lowered to at least 70 km / h, including on the secondary roads where it is installed. In Isère, this system was thus drawn up in 2016 to “respond to the problems of insecurity regularly highlighted by cyclists” in an activity area about twenty kilometers from Grenoble. “She was one of the ten CVCBs that we had counted at that time, relates Bertrand Deboudt. Since then, we have lost count, but they have multiplied”.
Difficult, however, to find figures on the subject. When questioned, the Ministry of Ecological Transition told us that “not being very widespread” the Chaussidoux “are not identified as such by the reference application allowing the different types of cycling facilities to be counted”. However, their installation is regularly the subject of articles in the regional press. There are many of them in Brittany, for example in the city of Quimper (8 kilometers of developed cycle paths), in the urban area of Lille, or even in Sarthe, where Le Mans Métropole has carried out a CVCB noticed in 2020.
10% of cycling facilities in Lyon
The agglomeration headed by Stéphane Le Foll also intends to increase the pace by the end of the year. “At the end of the confinement, we realized that many people used the bicycle to reach the municipalities of the metropolis, observes its first deputy mayor (PS), Christine Poupineau. However, the metropolis has a strong desire to develop municipal bicycles, even outside the city. The Chaussidoux will probably be part of the proposed developments, especially on small roads”. In Nantes, 30 kilometers of roads are dedicated to them. In Loire-Atlantique, under the impetus of the department, the evolution has been spectacular: they have gone from 1 kilometer in 2017 to soon 37 end to end by the end of the year. Same thing on the side of the agglomeration of Lyon where a hundred of them have been deployed in less than five years. “We were 10 kilometers away from tracks when we arrived in the metropolis in July 2020, we are now at 34, counts Fabien Bagnon, vice-president (EELV) in charge of mobility in the metropolis. This represents around 10% of the cycle facilities”.
Often presented as an experiment, the Chaussidoux ends up most of the time, according to the feedback of the elected officials interviewed, by being perpetuated. However, these developments are far from unanimous. If the studies of Cerema often reveal the satisfaction of cyclists with this kind of device, it is difficult to find that of motorists. “The feedback from bike users was positive in the ten evaluations we were able to do, with an often increased feeling of safety compared to a conventional route. But where we could interview cyclists on site, it was difficult for us to stop motorized drivers, hence their absence”, explains Bertrand Deboudt. Certain consultations carried out by agglomerations nevertheless make it possible to get an idea of the feelings of each one.
Lost motorists
In Toulouse, a online quiz relating to a Chaussidou in the city center showed a very clear division between users: if 90% of cyclists and 86% of pedestrians questioned said they were in favor of its sustainability, only half of motorists were of their opinion. Opponents said they found the layout “complex”, explaining that they did not know “how to position their vehicle on the lane”. Eventually, the device could turn into a cycle path. “The road must be shared, and can no longer be limited to a public space occupied by the car, believes Maxime Boyer, deputy mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR) of Toulouse, in charge of mobility. Motorists may not understand not yet the device, but it is a matter of habit”.
This concern is not limited to Toulouse motorists, on the contrary. “A lot of people don’t even know they exist, points out Céline Aubra, coordinator of the Angry Bikers Federation and representative of the Road Users Union. Add to that unclear signs, and motorists are often lost. ”
Criticized by… cyclists
Among the elected officials interviewed, we note that a “time to adapt” is often necessary. Sweet understatement. “It’s been five years since the first was installed in Lannion, and motorists are still driving to the right or left of the road, without taking into account the marking”, notes Paul Le Bihan, mayor (PS) of the city. The city councilor refuses to see in the development one of the parameters of the death of a cyclist in recent days in the town. “The shoemaker had nothing to do with it, assures the mayor. The investigation will tell us more, but the driver was drunk and hit and run. Despite all the precautions that can be taken against to road crime, we cannot limit all the risks”.
In the Telegram, it is a cycling association, Trégor bicycle, which has pointed out the limits of the system. For her, “the safety of cyclists depends on separating from cars, or reducing their speed”. A reduced speed far from always being respected: in Lannion, the section of track limited to 30 km / h is often crossed “at 52, 53, or even a little more”, notes the city councilor. “In the presence of cyclists, you have to slow down. But when you see the controversy created by the 80 km/h limit, you suspect that it may be counter-intuitive for motorists to slow down, points out Olivier Schneider , president of the Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB). And that the Chaussidoux can be seen as an obstacle to their circulation”.
Greenwashing
For the safety of cyclists and the comfort of motorists, cycle paths are therefore widely recommended by user associations and design offices. “It is not always possible: the edges of the roads do not always belong to communities, but to individuals. We cannot build cycle paths to widen the lanes. If we want to meet the needs of cyclists , the Chaussidou is the most effective solution in these cases”, points out Simon Citeau, deputy to Johanna Rolland, the mayor (PS) of Nantes in charge of soft travel. The most effective, but also the fastest and least expensive. When a cycle path costs between 400,000 and 500,000 euros per kilometer, and requires long construction work, a Chaussidou is four or five times less expensive and only requires marking work.
Enough to allow communities to carry out very fashionable “cycling facilities” at little cost. “Making a cycle lane means cutting back on the place of the car in terms of roads or, more often, parking space. It is a political cost that is not always easy for mayors, who can see an opportunity in the Chaussidou”, concedes Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor (EELV) of Rouen. In recent years, the Rouen-Normandy metropolis has also been tempted, always with the aim of making more room for cycling. “We only installed them in cases where we could not do otherwise, for reasons of physical constraint”, continues the mayor. An exceptional solution, which is not destined to multiply in its agglomeration: “If we really want to make room for cycling, it must be secure. Otherwise, it’s greenwashing”.