In Lyon, a car-free thoroughfare has become a political thorn in the side.

Rue Grenette, which takes its name from an old 15th-century grain warehouse that can still be seen today, has the essential function of linking the Saône to the Rhône, crossing the peninsula without detour.

Lined with shops, it has no equivalent as straight in the city center and the temptation is great to take it when arriving by car at its entrance on the Saône side.

But that would be defying the ban: since June 2025 and the establishment of a Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL) in the city center by the Greens, who jointly governed the municipality and the metropolitan area, only buses, bicycles, taxis, and authorized vehicles are permitted to circulate. This measure was intended to ban through traffic, "protect pedestrians," and promote public transportation, as Mayor Grégory Doucet—who was re-elected—had argued.

His counterpart at the Métropole, Bruno Bernard, has since lost the battle, leaving the reins in March to Véronique Sarselli (LR).

An unprecedented cohabitation thus began, where everyone initially displayed a desire for good relations.

But the small Grenette street quickly became an irritant, as the campaign had predicted.

The LR candidate had thus promised to "reopen" it to cars, echoing the protests of associations of traders and residents gathered in a collective, who denounced in 2025 a decision "emptying Lyon of its life and its visitors".

In response, on June 8th, Grégory Doucet brandished the results of an online consultation: 72% of the 17.000 voters expressed support for keeping Rue Grenette car-free. His conclusion: "Reopening this thoroughfare (...) would go against actual usage patterns." He then highlighted the "90.000 daily bus users, compared to 9 to 10.000 cars previously."

"Vote"

But for Ms. Sarselli and her allies, such an initiative "only has value if it faithfully reflects the diversity of viewpoints".

On June 9, she unveiled her "action plan" for mobility; the fate of Rue Grenette must be settled within six months.

Her guiding principle: "to organize the coexistence of different uses, not to pit modes of transportation against each other." For her, "the issue of Rue Grenette has become, above all, a symbol of a method": she "contests," in an interview with AFP, this "way of transforming public space without having sufficiently considered all the consequences for residents, shopkeepers, public transport users, and motorists." She insists that she is neither "driven by ideology" nor "by a systematic push back against the past."

In turn, Mr. Doucet is waiting for Ms. Sarselli to explain her "method". "It is up to her to build consensus, because she wants to go back on a decision I made, and to propose a solution to the conflict she has created," he told AFP.

For the mayor, any "forceful intervention by the metropolitan area would be a failure." Therefore, there is no question of "submitting to a body claiming to have superior authority," he declares.

How, then, can we get the street out of this impasse...?

To gain legitimacy if the deadlock persists, the mayor is putting forward his idea, going on the offensive: a referendum, which he intends to propose to the metropolitan executive. He denies, however, that this issue will be the benchmark for his relationship with the Metropolis for the next five years.

A keen observer and key figure in local politics, centrist Georges Képénékian, 76, former mayor of Lyon (2017-2018), notes that, on this complex issue, "we're heading for disaster." In his view, "everyone is trapped by campaign caricatures, somewhat captive to their electorate." His recommendation: "to find spaces for mediation where we can rebuild bridges."