2023-04-17 09:45:56
This might be the most singular legacy of the Olympics. Dedicated to the athletes and organizers of the Paris Games in 2024, the leftmost lane of the ring road will then be reserved for carpooling.
Concretely, the town hall of Paris, which launches this Monday, April 17 – on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Parisian “périph” – a large online consultation, intends to dedicate this route to any vehicle occupied by at least two passengers, whether whether it’s office colleagues, or a parent and child.
A display panel will indicate with a diamond that left-hand traffic is prohibited for drivers occupying their vehicle alone. The city of Paris proposes to open the system between 6.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. and from 3.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the 35 km of its ring road, with the exception of a 9 km section, located in the south between Porte de Bercy and Porte de Sèvres.
“This device aims to reduce the number of vehicles circulating on the ring road by encouraging them to carpool”, explains David Belliard, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of mobility. The launch of the device was born from the observation of the city of Paris that too many drivers still choose “autosolisme” – the fact of occupying their car alone. Of the 1.5 million daily trips on peripherals, 80% are made by a single occupant.
Motorway shock therapy
“Such a device aims to create a situation in which autosoloists are blocked and see people in carpools driving. Thus, we encourage some of the passengers to convert until the network is liveable again”, explains Amelia Rung, development director of Vinci Autoroutes, who is studying the implementation of the same system on the A10 motorway in Bordeaux.
In the background, the challenge is to reduce automobile pollution in Paris. With more than 2,500 premature deaths per year, or 7% of its total mortality, the French capital ranks 4e of European cities for the number of victims of nitrogen dioxide (this very toxic gas emitted mainly by road traffic), according to a study by The Lancet Planetary Health published in 2021.
The reserved lane is nothing new: it is present in most major American cities, such as Washington DC, which introduced it in 1992. In France, the town hall of Grenoble and the metropolis of Lyon have also adopted this system in September 2020.
For the time being, the control devices are still ineffective. “The cameras only have a preventive role, that is to say that we indicate on a luminous panel to the driver alone in his car that he must pull over to one of the two right-hand lanes. To sanction the drivers, we rely solely on the police officers on the side of the highway”, explains Éric Piolle, mayor of Grenoble (EELV).
But the town hall of Grenoble, which wishes to strengthen its repressive lever, is waiting in the middle of the year for authorization to use cameras connected to checkpoints in order to verbalize users who do not respect the diamond.
Consultation of the inhabitants on the modalities
Faced with this shock therapy, the decision of the city of Paris is not immune to a sling. At the end of 2021, the Île-de-France region organized an online consultation in which 90% of the 79,000 voters said they were opposed to the removal of a lane on the ring road. “But we are not removing lanes, we are simply encouraging motorists to take the car together”, says David Belliard today.
The town hall therefore offers Ile-de-France residents to give their opinion from April 17 to May 28. The consultation will take place online and will be accessible to all, regardless of address. Among the outstanding questions, the deputy mentioned access to the road for certain vehicles (taxis, public transport, etc.), the definition of the timetables mentioned by the town hall (between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. hours) or deactivation situations, in the event of an accident for example.
The deputy mayor nevertheless remains firm: the system will indeed see the light of day after the Olympic Games. “This project is not new. It was part of the legacy part of our Olympic Games host city contract, signed in 2017. We want to do something; now we consult to find out how. »
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