Map of traffic in La Rochelle port has seen its last … – South West

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‘History will record that it was a white Peugeot 205, apparently ageless and well-polluting. It was exactly 12:20 pm yesterday when the last passenger car borrowed the Quai Duperré – symbolic axis of the city of La Rochelle as it runs along the Old Port. – In the south north direction

She was immediately followed by a dense group of cyclists for most of them from the City Council. Ending a century of omnipotence of cars in the city beginning of the concept of “city subsided,” in the words of Mayor Jean-François Fountaine. Important moment, at least, for Rochelais who question for decades over whether or not to oust the car outside their postcard.

Michel Crépeau had started work in the years 70 by closing several downtown streets to traffic, Maxime Bono continued by limiting to one lane access to cars on the quay, Jean-François Fountaine the ends by closing the second path. Can no longer circulate on the harbor as buses, taxis and some authorized vehicles (emergencies, residents).

The fall of the car

The political decision is important, but the harder still to do. Because the geography of the city, wrapped around its port, does not facilitate bypass. The cars which will no longer go there to spend elsewhere. And although Jean-François Fountaine hope “the decline in the use of private cars in favor of soft modes of transport”, there are still far from the Gap. Lifestyle habits do not change overnight. “We will remain constantly listening to La Rochelle to collect their feelings and know what we must change, which works pretty well.

Two sites

The travel survey is only beginning even though we have already organized ten public meetings on the concept of city subsided, “says the mayor of La Rochelle.

thus closing the port yesterday, Jean-François Fountaine and his team open two projects: the rehabilitation of the road to get a rug over in connection with the maritime history of the platform and with its new use by bicycles and pedestrians, as well as of the establishment of a new traffic plan for motorists to go south of the city to the north, without creating too much pollution elsewhere.

It may take time to regain fluidity but there are twenty years when the port was two-way, 35 000 vehicles to circulate daily. Overnight, there were no more than 10,000, and things eventually get sorted. Yesterday we went from 10,000 to zero ….