Landes: Why is Vieux-Boucau among the national champions for cycling?

While the town is the top performer in the Landes region in the 2025 Cycling Barometer, and even shines at the national level, Mayor Pierre Froustey discusses the strategies implemented to promote the development of cycling.

Although the development of the cycle path network between municipalities is a responsibility of the Maremne Adour Côte Sud Community of Municipalities (Macs), and a budgetary priority for several years, within the municipalities that make it up, each makes its own choices.

Pierre Froustey, whose town of Vieux-Boucau comes in second place among towns of this size in a national barometer for cycling (the 2025 Cycling Barometer), behind Notre-Dame-de-Monts, in Vendée, acknowledges that the size of his town has a lot to do with it.

“Vieux-Boucau is the smallest town on the Aquitaine coast. The drawback is that this limits the town's development, as it cannot expand, but at the same time, it aligns with current legislation. We wanted to protect the boundaries of Vieux-Boucau and the forest to prevent the temptation of land consumption. The advantage is that there is only a one-kilometer diameter between the outermost point of the town and the town center. Everything is accessible on foot or by bicycle, and we have chosen to develop our territory based on this principle. Since 2010, we have been working on establishing a master plan, updated in 2020, which gives significant priority to active transportation.”

The pedestrian zone has been completely redesigned in recent years, encompassing the area around the bullring, the town center, the Place de l'Assemblée, and, soon, the school district and the Moïsan area. "We're making sure that connections are also facilitated for cyclists. Initially, we connected with the Vélodyssée cycle route, then with the connection from the town center to the beach, which will end with Avenue de la Plage, and the implementation of a shared roadway (Editor's note: a shared space for road users) which will be completed in December 2025. We received assistance from Macs for the connection between the ocean and the Vélodyssée, as is the case in all coastal towns."

As everywhere, it was necessary to connect the cycle paths. “In 2023, we launched a mobility plan to identify inconsistencies, cycle paths that abruptly end, and areas where choices had to be made. On Avenue Gao, we created a separate cycle path. Elsewhere, the approach was different. The goal is always to make the most vulnerable road users safer. Ultimately, to truly reduce car traffic, we can envision a car-free period in the town center. We are studying this, while recognizing that it cannot be done overnight. Beach shuttles, a free tourist train without advertising, park-and-ride facilities nearby… We are also working on a parking lot south of the town, on the road to Soustons.”

Today, the problems sometimes arise from the coexistence between pedestrians and cyclists, particularly on the promenade along the mall, or around the lake, where cyclists are quick to ring their bells.

“Perhaps we haven’t done enough to educate people about this, we’re going to work on it, because pedestrians always have priority. The requirement in apartment buildings to provide bicycle parking, in place since the 1970s, hasn’t necessarily been respected. We also need to find locations for bicycle parking. One year, we created 800 spaces for the summer, and they were still full, like at the central beach: there were 60 spaces, we tripled the number, and it’s still full.”

In Vieux-Boucau, the arrival of electric bikes has also allowed the town to move from "bike tourism" to "useful cycling", with locals using the paths to get to work or for daily journeys, with, of course, a clear preference for sunny days.