From the lakeside, this touristic city ’s steep roads lead upwards to provide breathtaking views across the water to Switzerland on the opposite side of the lake. The roads rise sharply, with short distances between the North and South of the city averaging a gradient of 15%.
Wishing to preserve Evian’s beauty and the health of its population, the city authorities have involved its inhabitants in a major project to ensure their city is sustainable and committed to fighting climate change, one of the priority challenges coming from a country-wide Agenda 2030.
“Fifty-four per cent of trips are less than 3km, and these are our clear target,” says the City of Evian’s Mayor Josiane Lei. “Our aim is to put the use of cars by individuals for this type of trip into freefall.” Committed to the fight against climate change, Josiane Lei, who received the Legion of Honour in 2022, is rapporteur for 17 sustainable development goals for the United Nations Forum of Mayors and collaborates with the French Ministry of Ecological Transition for the Agenda 2030.
The City of Evian’s research to find practical and useful routes for bike paths has involved those in the know: the city’s residents.
Authorities are working with volunteers among its inhabitants as well as the association Mobilité Douce Chablais Evian (Chablais-Evian Active Mobility) to draw up a long-lasting plan to get the population to choose walking and cycling over the car.
“We are committed to a process of continuous improvement, working closely with the population,” explains Jean-Pierre Amadio, elected deputy for mobility and regional planning. “We are relying on the network of current and future users of our infrastructure to help us make our city even more inducive to active mobility.”
The local cycling club, Evian Vélo, has been involved since the summer of 2021 in testing the routes suggested by the population during an initiative called "Tous en selle" (Everyone in the saddle).
After a series of consultations to select the routes for this testing phase, the operational phase consists of diagnosing the current situation on these roads and proposing safety improvements in two stages:
A one-year experiment, with simple and inexpensive provisional facilities, to make the selected routes more user-friendly for people on bikes. This could, for example, mean deviating most traffic to main (category 1) roads, to free up the smaller, category 2 and 3 roads: “Sometimes the shortest route will clearly be the active mode of travel on foot or by bicycle,” points out Mr Amadio.
If this experimental phase proves successful, a second phase will consolidate the improvements with more costly infrastructure works.
Jean-Pierre Amadio explains: “The aim is to set up a network with different destinations and points of interest, probably with a colour code that indicates either the estimated time or the difficulty of the journey, a bit like those on the ski slopes and mountain bike trails.”
Schools, public points of interest and catchment areas are integrated into the plans.
“We want to offer an alternative to the car for getting families to school, as well as to cultural and sports centres,” says the Mayor Josiane Lei. She welcomes the increasing popularity of e-bikes which widens the scope of possibilities for residents of a city with many steep roads.
The new cycle routes and facilities are being presented to the public at a series of events, including a public meeting late spring and during European Sustainable Development Week in the autumn. Everyone will have a chance to report defects and risks that had not been previously identified.
“In addition, we are working with the National Education Department and the city's schools to implement the ‘Know how to ride a bike’ scheme to enable children to travel by bike more calmly, frequently and safely.”
For commuters, the city with a little over 9’000 inhabitants has created 75 bike parking places three minutes from the port, while another 50 bike parking spots have been added at a maximum three minutes’ walk from the main railway station.
The push to increase bicycle use is timely for Évian-les-Bains, which lies in the department of Haute-Savoie, host of the 2nd UCI Cycling World Championships in 2027. In four years’ time, the eyes of the cycling world will be on the region, which will also see an influx of tourists.
“Our vision of sustainable tourism includes being able to offer our visitors low-carbon modes of travel to enjoy the exceptional environment between lake and mountain,” concludes the Mayor.