The mayor of Paris will “amend” its “reserved lane” project on the ring road

The town hall of Paris, overwhelmed with "no" during the consultation on its project to reserve a ring road lane for carpooling and public transport after the 2024 Olympics, will "amend" its project by mid-July, have indicated Tuesday, June 30 to AFP the deputies of the mayor Anne Hidalgo.

“We are going to amend the project compared to the initial version”, indicated the assistant for urban planning Emmanuel Grégoire, while stressing that the participation of the public by electronic means (PPVE) closed Sunday was “a consultation, not a referendum ".

The left-wing executive will "improve the project and make arbitrations by mid-July", said for his part the assistant for mobility and roads David Belliard.

Open from April 17 to May 28, the consultation on the terms of implementation of this "dedicated channel" recorded just over 6.500 contributions, including "around 80-85%" of negative opinions, recognizes Mr. Belliard .

Rejecting for some an "anti-social project" launched to " scare away the Ile-de-France residents", the opponents of the closure of a lane to general traffic are ultra-majority there.

"We will take into account the negative comments" without "distorting the project completely", assures David Belliard.

In a forum broadcast on Sunday in the JDD, local right-wing elected officials, including the president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, ask "consultation" from Anne Hidalgo.

"More than a million vehicles drive daily" on the ring road, "80% of which are not Parisians", they recall.

Wanted to reduce pollution, this reserved lane must be activated on the left lane in the morning and in the evening, "during the week and / or during weekends", according to the starting proposal from the town hall.

The Town Hall also plans to lower the authorized speed on the ring road from 70 to 50 km/h, permanently or only when the dedicated lane is active.

The third point of tension is the list of vehicles authorized to circulate there.

In its initial project, the town hall considers as carpooling any vehicle carrying at least two people, including the driver, while around 80% of trips are made, according to it, by autosolism (the fact of traveling alone in a vehicle).

This reserved lane will be the successor to the "Olympic lane", which will allow athletes, rescuers and officials to travel from accommodation sites to competition sites in a safe and rapid manner during the Olympic Games.

Two sections of motorways managed by the State in the Paris suburbs must also undergo this transformation for and after the Olympics.