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"In the future, Ile-de-France residents will have reliable data on air pollution in the metro and RER"

2022-05-27T17:06:27.254Z


FIGAROVOX / TRIBUNE - The air quality in the Paris metro and the Ile-de-France RER will now be systematically assessed and made public, explain Delphine Bürkli and Olivier Blond.


Delphine Bürkli is administrator of IDFM and mayor Horizons of the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

Olivier Blond is special delegate for the fight against air pollution in the Ile-de-France region.

Air pollution in the metro and RER has for too long been an open secret for professionals and a taboo for decision-makers.

The experts knew the numbers - bad -;

the citizens guessed the problems - worrying.

Nearly four million people took the metro every day, and tens of thousands of people worked there, but they were not to be worried: Billancourt was not to be despaired of.

This is no longer the case.

Four years ago, the Ile-de-France Region launched and financed experiments in several Parisian stations with the SNCF and the RATP, in order to test pollution control technologies.

Today, and following Valérie Pécresse's commitments, Île-de-France Mobilité (IDFM) is launching a major action plan on this subject.

This plan marks a break with previous actions.

It sets a framework, defines an ambition, coordinates measures.

Above all, it includes transparency and public information as the first principle of action.

The data collected in the stations will be centralized and evaluated by an independent expert – Airparif.

They will be communicated to users and employees in a transparent and coordinated manner.

This contrasts with the current situation: while there are a few measuring devices, their data is scattered and, in fact, too difficult to find and understand.

Delphine Bürkli and Olivier Blond

This contrasts with the current situation: while there are a few measuring devices, their data is scattered and, in fact, too difficult to find and understand.

This new transparency and this work of truth accompany actions concerning the improvement of ventilation in the stations as well as the experimentation and the deployment of new technologies on the trains or in the stations to reduce pollution (mainly caused by the braking of train).

They are a follow-up to actions already started a few years ago.

All this marks a break with the past.

Not that nothing has been done before.

But the transport organizing authority (IDFM) and the region are building a global plan to deal with the subject.

This transparency, in particular, has, to our knowledge, no equivalent in the world.

If the subways of London or New York are notoriously polluted, they have not set up a program of an equivalent scale and even less transparency on the data.

We can thus imagine that the system set up in Île-de-France will find an echo in other countries, as in the other regions of France.

This is not a technical measure but a break in the way of managing transport.

Because this transparency decided by Île-de-France Mobilité imposes itself on SNCF and the RATP: it becomes an operating principle.

And once it is in place, there is no going back.

Users, associations, unions but also the authorities that are IDFM and the Region will be able to examine the data and thus request progress, the importance of which will gradually increase.

Will this transparency help bring travelers back to public transport who are still struggling to find the number of users before the Covid?

Or, on the contrary, will it scare them away even more?

The question is open

Delphine Bürkli and Olivier Blond

It's still a bet.

Will this new transparency help to bring travelers back to public transport who are still struggling to find the number of users before the Covid - which poses problems in terms of automobile pollution, and in terms of profitability for transport authorities?

Or, on the contrary, will it scare them away even more?

The question is open and it may take some time to be able to decide.

But courage or political virtue are clearly on the side of the alternative and impose confidence in citizens, users and employees.

This trust is the basis of the democratic mandate.

And remember that public transport in the region is not a profit-making activity like any other, but that it is managed within the framework of decentralized public services and entrusted by law to the Region.

In the current times, when social ties are weakening, when politics is contested from all sides, democracy must be taken seriously, and therefore voters must be taken seriously: citizens are not children who are afraid must be appeased with false promises or ostriches ready to stick their heads in the sand.

They are rational adults who ask for the truth.

This is the bet of this important decision, which includes the fight against pollution in a fight for democracy.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-05-27

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