Cyclist's death in Paris lays bare divide over mayor's war against cars

Cycling groups want more protection, but some pedestrians say bikers are now a threat

It sent a shock through Paris, a city striving to transform itself into one of the great cycling metropolises in the world: A bicycle rider, crushed under the wheels of a sport utility vehicle in a bike lane a few metres from La Madeleine, the landmark neoclassical church, in what prosecutors suspect was a deliberate act of road rage.

A murder investigation has been opened, and last week, Mayor Anne Hidalgo led the Paris City Council in a minute of silence for the cyclist, Mr Paul Varry, 27, who was also a cycling advocate.

Ms Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist Party, delivered an emotional speech in which she signalled she would continue to roll out her famously aggressive policies that aim to drastically reduce the role of the car in Parisian life.

"I am truly angry," she said. "The future does not belong to cars."

An outpouring of emotion over Mr Varry's Oct 15 death has put a spotlight on the dangers facing cyclists in a city that has seen an explosion in bikes and cycling lanes in recent years. But it has also underscored the frustrations that motorists increasingly feel in a place that has chosen to limit the movement, speed and parking options of cars.

In recent weeks, as cycling organisations, spurred by the death of Mr Varry, demanded more protections from aggressive drivers, others have complained about Parisian bikers themselves, some of whom have earned a reputation as dangerous risk-takers.

Ratcheting up tensions in November is a new policy banning motorists from driving through the four arrondissements, or districts, in the heart of the city, rekindling the argument that Ms Hidalgo's anti-car stance is impractical, bad for business and caters mostly to wealthy liberals who can afford to live in the city centre.

"She is putting a garrote around Paris," Mr Patrick Aboukrat, a boutique owner in the fashionable Marais neighbourhood, said this week.