Half-baked measures and poor execution have led to a situation no one is happy with.
The controversial bike lane on Avenue Pasteur had divided opinions from the start. It was approved in January, and the felling of 23 trees caused a first wave of opposition.
The end result does not convince people, either, notably the first 250 meters on the busy stretch closest to Glacis. Monique Goldschmit from ProVëlo, explains:
"It is a constant up and down, due to garage entrances or elevated gutters. And the very beginning of the path has an incredibly high sidewalk, which is dangerous to ride up."
Pedestrians and cyclists are in each others' way, with an unclear division of space on a narrow sidewalk. "Looking at the large numbers of pedestrians during school time, it will be very busy. There is not enough space."
Restaurants, meanwhile, decry the loss of sidewalk space for their terraces. "This allowed us to have some more customers in summer," says Alexandre Godonou-Dossou, who runs Basta Cosi and had invested a lot into his terraces.
Rubbish disposal is also a problem: "We put out our bins, paper and cardboard, or the blue bags. Then they block the sidewalk or cycle lane."
The City had promised restaurateurs to find a solution for new terraces. But this is not very thought through, says Marianne Donven from restaurant Chiche.
"Luxembourg City had offered a terrace space, on the other side of the road. So our people would have to cross the bidirectional bike lane, then the road, with no pedestrian crossing. That would have been too dangerous."
Those in the area would have liked a shared space, with the road only open to local residents. Not a feasible solution, said the city: there is too much traffic to the many schools on Limpertsberg, which has to go somewhere.
The only ones who were catered to, then, are drivers. As usual.
