” This is madness ! “, the 60% increase in the price of parking lots in Rennes divides

2023-07-20 17:17:00

A little surprise awaits the people of Rennes when they return from vacation: soaring prices for secure car parks. The bill is likely to be salty with an average increase of 60% since July 1. ” This is madness ! “, reacts Brigitte, 74, who regularly parks in the parking lot of the central halls to do her food shopping. It will now cost him 0.70 euro for a quarter of an hour instead of 50 cents.

“A lot of elderly people use this car park. I can’t stand up on the bus and I never learned to ride a bike. The 40-year-old ecologists do not realize,” complains Brigitte.

“I don’t understand why we do this in a period of inflation”

At the Kléber car park, the increase is even more spectacular, with a price three times higher. A choice entirely assumed by the City, which manages these 6,000 spaces spread over 12 car parks via a public service delegation. “Rennes Métropole is resolutely committed to a travel plan which aims to reduce the share of the car in favor of public transport”, explained Matthieu Theurier, deputy vice-president for Mobility and Transport of the environmental group, during the last metropolitan council.

Noting a drop in attendance since the Covid, which will undoubtedly be accentuated by the arrival of the second metro line, the community must also find new revenue to cope with the increase in charges and the work to come.

Rennes Métropole wants to encourage motorists to use the relay car parks made available free of charge when taking the metro. “It’s a shame for a city that claims to be social. I do not understand why we do this in a period of inflation, ”denounces Laurence Taillandier, president of Carré Rennes, the association of traders. “There is really a desire to no longer see a population that sometimes comes from far away”. She also fears that this will impact the turnover of traders.

During his speech, Matthieu Theurier anticipated the criticism and recalled that “the prices of these car parks have not been reviewed since 2009, that is to say for fourteen years”. They are now approaching the average for comparable cities.