The left-wing Paris Council clarified on Tuesday its plan to reserve a lane on the ring road for carpooling during the 2024 Olympic Games and beyond.
As deputy David Belliard declared in Le Parisien in September, this route is planned to extend over the entire 35 km of the circular route.
By approving an agreement with the Solideo (Olympic delivery company) and Paris 2024 (the organizing committee) on the financing of traffic simulations for the “Olympic lanes”, reserved for athletes, media, officials, emergency services and forces order during the Games, the town hall reaffirms that the reserved lane on the ring road and its equipment (fitness cameras, sensors, signage) "will be kept in order to allow the creation of a lane reserved for carpooling and other virtuous modes" .
A lane reserved for buses, carpooling and electric vehicles?
But while the Olympic route, financed by the Solideo, concerns only three quarters (west, north and east) of the ring road, the city council adopted a wish from the environmental group asking to "complete the legacy" by integrating into the future carpooling lane the southern section, between the gates of Versailles and Bercy, "in order to create a dedicated lane on the entire Paris ring road".
"We voted on the principle of making the entire ring road", summed up the deputy (EELV) for the transformation of public space, David Belliard, estimating the municipal budget at 6 or 7 million euros to "finance the closure of this dedicated channel ”.
The list of these “other virtuous modes” is “being developed within the framework of the Peripheral workshops”, recalls the town hall.
On Wednesday, the first deputy (PS) Emmanuel Grégoire had mentioned “public transport” and “electric vehicles”. The majority of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, PS presidential candidate, takes this decision in principle while Valérie Pécresse, LR president of the Ile-de-France region and another contender for the Elysee, launched a consultation last Wednesday in line on this project, to which she is fiercely opposed.
"For or against the removal of a lane for all of the device?
Asks the region, which would like to take the management of the periphery in its bosom, in a vote open until November 30.
A formulation contested by David Belliard: "It is not a question of removing a lane but of transforming it, to promote carpooling," he replied.
The aim is to respond to the problems of air quality and noise pollution, which affect 500,000 people who live around the ring road ”.
Around 1.2 million users per day use the road ring, which is very often congested.
Each vehicle carries an average of 1.1 people there and the axis represents 3% of trips in Île-de-France.
