2023-12-05 16:26:12
TRANSPORT – Give your opinion online, before December 8, on flying taxis. A barrage of criticism fell following the announcement of the installation of a vertiport on the Quai d’Austerlitz, from which flying machines could launch from May 2024.
Storm warning on the project for a vertiport, a sort of floating heliport, which should be moored at the Quai d’Austerlitz, along the Seine, near the Cité de la mode et du design.
This is a decisive step towards the deployment of electric flying taxis in Paris. The experiment is scheduled from May to December 2024 with a view to ensuring the sustainability of this new mode of urban travel. A first in a European metropolis.
The Environmental Authority has already issued a mixed opinion, considering the impact study “incomplete”. Once is not customary: the elected representatives of the Paris council, from the left as well as the right, voted against the project.
Many Parisians decided to flee the capital during the Olympic Games. Will they want to leave the City of Lights for good with the arrival of these new sound and energy-consuming flying machines?
To the wide-body aircraft which are already flying happily over the capital – whose noise pollution we have extensively denounced in the columns of France-Soir – will be added flying taxis. No, this is not a science fiction scenario, it’s for tomorrow!
“The sky is the last space for wild life in the city. If it is saturated with noisy flying taxis, what will we have left to recharge our batteries? This new noise and visual pollution, at an altitude of 150 meters, is an attack on the rights of citizens to live in a healthy and balanced environment”, protests Dominique Lazarski, vice-president of the French Union Against Aircraft Nuisance (UFCNA).
Urban private jets in the skies of Paris
Called “VoloCity”, these flying machines, which look like large insects, would take three air routes: from Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to Le Bourget, from Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport to The Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole aerodrome, near Versailles, and the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport at the vertiport moored on the Quai d’Austerlitz.
Furthermore, two loops would be reserved for “tourist first flights” over Paris which, to date, are however strictly prohibited. A huge gift placed in the basket of Volocopter, both manufacturer and operator of this new market!
The flying taxis would be intended to transport athletes, politicians, VIPs and those who would like to avoid possible traffic jams or go sightseeing above Paris for a ticket of around 110 euros.
In short, it would be the arrival in the skies of Paris of private urban jets. They could be stormed for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games which constitute “the biggest popular sports festival in the heart of Paris”, says the Paris2024.org website.
“This project derogates from the ban on flying over Paris at an altitude of less than 2,000 meters. There is a high risk for the safety of people and property. Where would the flying taxi land in an emergency in the event of device deficiency or driver failure?”worries Françoise Brochot, president of Advocnar, the association for the defense against air pollution, headwinds against this new mode of transport.
Give your opinion online before December 8… After that, it will be too late
Submit your opinion by clicking ici.
A public inquiry, intended to “collect comments from the public on the vertiport project opened from November 6 to December 8, 2023.
But the creation of a “heliport”, a sort of mini-aerodrome on the Seine (which is no small thing!) is only one aspect of the whole project.
This investigation has almost gone unnoticed, due to a lack of media coverage commensurate with the issue. The written press took a little interest in the subject but there was no coverage in the television news, which reaches the greatest number of people.
“It’s scandalous to only give the main stakeholders one month to respond to this survey! We had to dissect hundreds of pages of analyzes before being able to publish our opinion”storm Françoise Brochot.
It is interesting to read the opinions already online, Parisians being mainly opposed to the Vertiport, apart from unconditional fans of innovation and new gadgets.
Risks of attack during the Olympic Games
The investigating commissioner, Jean-François Lavillonnière, engineer from the Ecole centrale de Paris, retired, appointed by the president of the Paris administrative court, will provide a summary, give a reasoned opinion and may issue recommendations.
“We know that public surveys are rarely negative! The Minister of Transport will be responsible for accepting or not the experiment at the start of 2024. Given the risks incurred in France during this period of terrorism and attacks, the International Olympic Committee is opposed to this project, blurted out an observer close to the case.
“We can imagine that these flying taxis are targets, because they will move VIPs”underlines Françoise Brochot.
The France Nature Environnement Paris association does not exclude the risk of attack either: “It is easy to hijack an eVTOL and project it 150 meters above sea level onto a tourist spot…”
She also puts online a petition.
*Corine Moriou is an independent journalist and major reporter.
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