Whether it's to get to work, do sport or simply take a ride home, the bicycle is still widely used in France. Much faster than walking, less expensive to maintain than a motorized vehicle and, above all, excellent for your health, it's the perfect means of transport, especially for short distances. Unfortunately, it is still far too little used by the French, who prefer to use cars. In 2018, just 3% of the population travelled by bike on a daily basis. That's why the government decided to launch a Plan Vélo, in 2018, to increase this number. This project mainly involves increasing the number of cycle lanes in the country, to avoid accidents linked to road hazards, as well as introducing safety measures such as the wearing of reflective vests and provisions against bicycle theft. But has this measure been effective?
On this map of the Grand Est, you can see bicycle accidents in the Grand Est, before and after the introduction of the Plan Vélo.
These graphs show the number of accidents by type of journey (leisure, work, professional...), by department. Over the last 5 years prior to the Plan Vélo, we can see that the departments with the highest accident rates are Bas-Rhin (67) and Haut-Rhin (68), which respectively have a total of 355 accidents and 242 accidents over the 2012-2017 period, out of a total of 1137 accidents. This gives 30% plus 21%, or more than half of all accidents. The type of trip with the highest number of accidents is the "Leisure" category, involving 625 cases, giving 15% of trips (if we exclude those whose nature is not specified). It can also be seen that the Bas-Rhin (67) and Loisir (Leisure) combination takes the cake in terms of number of accidents, with 157 cases, or 13% of all accidents. This, together with the Chi-squared calculation, which gives a figure of 143, indicates that there is no statistical independence among these data, and that the number of accidents does indeed depend on the département and type of trip.
We can now look at the data in the second graph, which shows the same data for the 5 years following the introduction of the Plan Vélo. The first thing to note is that the number of accidents, over the same period, has fallen from over 1,000 cases to 736, some 27% fewer. It can also be seen that the Leisure category still accounts for the highest number of accidents, with 73% of accidents involving this type of trip. With the latter having fallen drastically, this percentage can therefore be considered to be on the rise. In terms of département, Bas-Rhin (67) has given way to Haut-Rhin (68), with 25% and 23% of accidents respectively. This may demonstrate the effectiveness of the Bicycle Plan in these two départements. With the Chi-square calculation set at 164, we can confirm that there is still no statistical independence between these data, and conclude that the Bas-Rhin (67) and Haut-Rhin (68) regions could be better taken care of under the Bicycle Plan, even though they have already been positively impacted by it.
Let's take a look at these two moustache boxes, on the age of victims before and after the introduction of the Plan Vélo. For the first period, the average age of victims is almost 40. Thanks to the calculation of the first and third quartiles and the variance, which is found to be 444, this indicates that most victims are between 20 and 56 years of age, well distributed around the average. Comparing now with the second moustache box, we can see that the average age of victims increased after the Bike Plan, as did the variance, now equal to 484, and the variance, from 21 to 22. The majority of victims were aged between 24 and 62. The fact that bicycle accident victims in the Grand Est region are older overall can be seen as a sign of the impact of the Plan Vélo, with safety measures reaching younger people more effectively.
Let's go back to the departments, this time looking at the severity of accidents. Looking at the Bas-Rhin département (67), which had the highest number of accidents before the Plan Vélo, we can see that most victims suffered only minor injuries (71% of accidents in this département). By contrast, in Haut-Rhin (68), most victims had to go to hospital (56%). In the region, just over half of all accident victims were only slightly injured, and around 38% more seriously. The Chi-squared calculation, at around 176, confirms that there is no statistical independence between these data.
If we now look at the graph for the post-Plan Vélo period, we can see that this time there are more victims with only minor injuries than hospitalized ones. What's more, the number of victims with minor injuries has taken over from hospitalized victims. This may be linked to the fact that Haut-Rhin (68) had more accidents than Bas-Rhin (67) over the second period. However, the Chi-squared has risen to 84, and has therefore largely decreased. Statistical independence, although not achieved, is therefore somewhat closer.
We can therefore conclude that the Plan Vélo has had a real impact on the Grand Est, and in particular the Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin regions, which can be strategic areas in the French government's project and help it to achieve its objectives.