No one dreams of a crowded tram or bus. Especially since the coronavirus lurks. At the end of the confinement, it is a safe bet that the inhabitants of the metropolis will turn away from it, promiscuity and risk of contagion obliges.
The temptation will therefore be strong to barricade oneself in one’s car. Fault ! Because it could generate huge traffic jams and pollution, the fine particles of which increase the risk of mortality from Covid-19, as a study by Harvard University proves.
Walking and cycling preferred
What solutions for post-containment, then? How should and will we be able to get around? We will have to rethink the public space and everyone’s place. The Orleans collective Vélorution, who promotes the bicycle in daily commuting, sees it as an opportunity for rebalancing.
These activists do not preach only for their parish. “Unlike the private car which mobilizes a lot of space for a low passenger flow, walking and cycling are economical and flexible modes of travel perfectly suited to the health crisis. “
However, it is not a question of excluding the car:
“We propose to share the public space for everyone to circulate. The sidewalks will become the waiting room for the stores. We will have to spread out to respect the distances and therefore take up space elsewhere. This is called tactical urban planning (*). We create low-cost, reversible and hyper-reactive (one-way, cycle paths, etc.) developments. We maintain if it works, and if it doesn’t work, we change. “
Yann (Member of Vélorution)
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Better still: redistributing space would also have economic virtues that could encourage recovery.
“We have always championed the idea that pedestrians and cyclists are the primary customers of downtown businesses.”
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Pragmatic solution
The collective goes further and leaves the intra-mails. “We propose the implementation of tactical cycle routes in the metropolis. They will allow the safe connection of activity zones such as Pole 45 and shopping areas “. This map (opposite) of” deconfinement “shows this.
“These are strategic axes where the demand for cyclists is already strong. Cycling is a pragmatic solution: it is not expensive, it is efficient and it often takes less time than driving.”
Yann (Member of Vélorution)
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Concretely, this means blocking a lane with studs and dedicating it to bikes.
During the municipal campaign, “cycling was a central theme”, he recalls. Precisely, Jean-Philippe Grand, candidate of the PS / EELV list at the municipal level, goes in this direction too. Olivier Carré, candidate for his succession, is in full reflection (read below).
Several French cities and communities (Montpellier, Paris, Grenoble, Seine-Saint-Denis, Rennes, Greater Lyon, Nantes…) have already switched to tactical town planning, and this during containment. “We are at the disposal of Orléans Métropole to share our usage expertise,” said the Vélorution collective.
(*) Tactical urban planning: Canadian urban planners (participatory urban planning. Ca) define it as “temporary developments that use easy-to-install / uninstall furniture to demonstrate possible changes to the layout of streets, intersections or public space. can thus show how development can influence user behavior. “
What Olivier Carré thinks
The mayor of Orléans and president of Orléans Métropole is preparing for post-containment. He says he wants a “peaceful city” and rebalances modes of travel.
Travel in the metropolis and downtown Orleans will necessarily change after May 11. What is at stake? “We have started a reflection with the mayors and the assistants. The fear of elected officials of all stripes, it is a massive transfer towards the car by reflex of protection. However, it is not a good idea. They could turn away public transport. So we have to encourage alternative solutions. ”
Which ones? “It takes a lot of common sense. We have changed the order of priorities: the logic of distancing leads us to favor other modes than the car, in particular the bicycle. I recall that one of the political objectives of the Metropolis is to increase the share of the bicycle. But not only that: we will also create spaces for pedestrians. ”
How will public space be redesigned? “We have to develop the space where there are real risks, where there are conflicts of use. The services work on it and we take a lot of ideas, in particular from associative partners, to measure the feasibility. We are going to work out a plan which will be discussed again, on the agglo scale. The space organization aspect is not the most complicated: we are going to make provisional measures which will allow us to keep the required distances. defining real routes. It’s a complicated global reflection. People will have to adopt new rules. Especially on the tram, because of the promiscuity, wearing a mask should be highly recommended. “
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Marie Guibal
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