Cycle Infrastructure in Chalon-sur-Saône

I had a look at a bit of cycle infrastructure in Chalon-sur-Saône. It’s on Quai Saint-Cosme, where Stage 12 of the Tour de France 2026 finishes.

It’s part of a leisure route, the Boucle de Bourgogne du Sud, which takes in the Voie Verte Cluny Givry.

There’s a nice bi-directional cycle track between the road and the river in Chalon.

There are also multiple parallel crossings (cycle and pedestrian) which enable you to cross from the cycle track to the town side of the road.

The parallel crossings are quite close together, so you can cross where you want.

One of the parallel crossings leads on to contraflow cycling on a one-way street.

The contraflow cycling has priority at a crossroads where motor vehicles do not.

There are other nice touches like this side road zebra for pedestrians.

The designers of the scheme have done a great job, but they arguably lost their nerve at the junction where Quai Saint-Cosme meets Pont Jean Richard.

Here, motor vehicles get the lion’s share of the space, and walking and cycling are in narrower shared space.

The space on the bridge itself is constrained, and the shared use footway is quite narrow.

Overall, the scheme shows what can be done by competent local authorities if they get on with and do it properly.