Parisian ring road. For or against a “carpooling” route?

Anne Hidalgo is the PS mayor of Paris. Valérie Pécresse is LR president of the Île-de-France region. Anne Hidalgo is a candidate for the presidential election of 2022, Valérie Pécresse too. For several years, these two women of power have been in opposition on many subjects, including the management of transport which, in essence, interweaves their two territories. And while the socialist has been officially invested by her party for 2022, her right-wing rival is still seeking an official nomination within her political family (The Republicans). In reaction to the development projects of the ring road by Anne Hidalgo, Valérie Pécresse, who is opposed to it as you might have guessed, has just launched a public consultation on the subject.

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A reserved lane, but to whom?

In 2019, the Paris city hall presented a project to transform the ring road. This involves in particular the reallocation of certain traffic lanes in ” olympic lanes “Dedicated to the Olympic Games in 2024, lanes which would subsequently be reserved” shared, connected and clean vehicles »In order to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in this area.

At the start of 2021, a survey conducted by the City of Paris among 4,000 users of the ring road showed a massive rejection of this proposal, such as the lowering of the limit from 70 km / h to 50 km / h on this axis. In detail, the participants said they were more closed to the idea of ​​a lane dedicated to the least polluting vehicles, considered ” socially discriminating “, Than that of a lane reserved for carpooling which could have” a certain legitimacy in principle despite questions about the implementation “. So the town hall has reoriented its speech towards the allocation of a lane to shared vehicles and public transport. In each direction, the number of lanes open to all could drop from four or five to three. It is on this point that Valérie Pécresse calls on the French to express themselves, whether they are users of the device or not.

In the online consultation through the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse invites Internet users to come forward ” for or against the removal of a traffic lane for all on the ring road “. According to her, this boulevard, which is used daily by more than a million vehicles, is 40% used for trips from suburb to suburb, but its administration is part of the competence of the City of Paris. ” We do not want to delete a lane on the device but to transform it », Reacted David Belliard, deputy in charge of transport at the City of Paris.

The consultation is open until November 30th. Accessible as of the 10th of this month, it has received nearly 36,000 contributions as of this writing. It is during a congress scheduled for December 4 that The Republicans will nominate their candidate for the presidential election. Valérie Pécresse could argue possible support for the device to support its legitimacy facing his competitors in his own party, then facing Anne Hidalgo in the event of a confrontation to access the highest office of the State.