Cycling rates in Paris have increased in recent years. But the death of 27 -year -old Paul Varry – who was allegedly beaten by the driver – exposed the darker side of the Paris cycling revolution.
“This was not an accident,” Paul’s colleague Corentin believes.
We stand on the verge of a bicycle path on the Malasherbes Boulevard, a few steps from the place where Paul overthrew SUV on October 15, 2024.
The moments that precedes his death are subject to a criminal investigation.
Paul was driving home from work. The cycle of the trail is separated from the road with a slightly raised edge panel.
According to witnesses and CCTV, the SUV driver started driving in a bicycle tape. Prosecutors say the driver crossed Paul’s foot. Paul hit his fist on the lid.
The motorist initially turned, but then allegedly drove to the 27-year-old. The autopsy confirmed “the traces of vehicles crossing his body.”
The 52-year-old driver is charged with murder. His lawyer says he may have lost control of the vehicle in a stressful situation he was trying to get out.
At the hearing attended by the AFP news agency, he broke through in tears and said, “I’m sorry for what happened. I never wanted to run over.”
Paris saw a rise in cycling as part of the wider transformation at the helm of Mayor Anne Hidalgo. During the last decade, the City has invested € 400 million (£ 331m) in cycling infrastructure, creating more than 1,000 kilometers of bicycle paths.
According to a recent study, cycling now makes up more than 11% trip in Paris, compared to only 4% by car. Walking is still the most popular way of touring – 53% of the trip seems, followed by public transport (30%).
But despite the investment, cycling in Paris still feels insecure.
Cycling trails are patched, do not have a monotony and often do not have the appointment of traffic lights. The rules surrounding the right of the road are not always clear and often spit, making cyclists make sure to move safe.
Paul Varry’s death was extreme, but she echoed and became a symbol of everyday struggle for space on the streets of Paris.
His mother Nathalie Tison remembers his son as a carefree spirit who accepted the freedom of cycling. “He was a very happy and very arrogant person, he had a nice sense of humor and was always very gentle to the people around him. It is such injustice because he did not deserve what happened at all.”
She told me that she had always been worried about the danger of her son, who was driving in Paris, where she discovered a sense of rights among some drivers.
“Drivers can be super aggressive – nothing can be on their way,” she said. “For some, the car is an extension of their virginity and if someone touches their car … it is taken as a personal attack.
“I was afraid of him.”
Paul understood these risks and was an active member of the Paris En Selle – Paris cycling group in the saddle. He advocated more separate bicycle space and safer joints.
Proponents hope that progress will be achieved in Paris.
Rémi Féraud, Socialist Senator and Best Choice of Anne Hidalgo for future mayors, does not dream of a future without a car, “because there are Parisians who have cars.”
“But reducing the car space, we reserve it for those who really need to get a car,” he says. “We want a city that is 100% cycling … It’s a freedom offer.”
The cutter of more street cyclist space included limiting cars space. The number of parking spaces in Paris has reduced half, and certain vehicles are forbidden to drive through the city.
Some drivers, especially those from the suburbs, believe that the city policy policy has made it difficult for a car.
“Driving in Paris is like going to war,” says Shamy, reserved by a 24-year-old midwife. “No rules I sit in his car as he breaks through the bicycle path – he can’t turn out because people walk there, and in front of us cars are a bumper on the bumper.
What does he do if there is a conflict with a cyclist? “I just say sorry.”
Shamy lets me go when we approach the downtown zone where traffic is prohibited – one of several measures that made anger from the owner of the companies.
The Patrick Aboukrat, who owns a fashion boutique in Marais trade district, has launched a lawsuit with other members of Comité Marais Paris, a business association leading to try to return some of the new rules.
He says they lose their customers and that some planned to sell themselves. “When young people say they want to open a store, I say,” Open the trade in the suburbs, get out of Paris. “
“We understand the need to have fewer cars in the center. I tell the mayor that we want to work together, to change the plan. But they don’t listen. It’s ideological.”
But Féraud, a senator, instead suggests that it is to blame for buying on the network.
According to polls, most of those living on the main Paris tour – of which only 30% own a car – do not interfere with measures that limit traffic.
Those on the outskirts tend to drive more, but do not meet the conditions for the mayor of Paris or affect his traffic policies.
Alexandra Legendre, which represents a driver lobbyist group – a league of driver defense – says “Nobody [drives] Because of the pleasure in Paris, he hell. “He feels that the authorities are prioritial cyclists to the detriment of everyone else.
She accuses politicians of blinking him by the desire to turn Paris into a paradise of cyclists – neglecting road safety. It insists that car drivers cannot be treated as “the only bad guys”.
There is a consensus that Paul Varry’s death was a tragedy, but Mrs. Legendre doesn’t think it has nothing to do with the cyclist.
Paris is moving in the challenges of its bicycle revolution because they are European capital under pressure to suppress carbon transport emissions. The EU Green Contract aims to achieve 90% of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to transport by 2050.
Corentin, Paul’s colleague, points out that, although Paris is still far from perfect, the infrastructure has improved significantly, which has made it easier for more safer than ever before enjoying the view.
“We are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and there is no better way to see it than bicycle.”
A constant flow of a cyclist who buzzes down Rue de Rivoli – who was the main highway by 2020.
Paul’s mother hopes that the safe transformation of Paris Street will be part of her son’s legacy.
The date for trial has not yet been set.
When that finally comes, she will face a man who has been accused of first caused the death of his son.
He is four, the authorities told her. Two families, he points out, are “broken”.
She believes that the way Paul lived and died must be a catalyst for change.
“He was so bright, intelligent, sensitive – such a waste. And we are reduced to a thousand pieces. We have to ask ourselves, what kind of society we want to live in?”
