In an episode of the show Territorial issues in France Culture, Jean-Yves Chapuis contextualizes the opening of the Rennes metro line B, from 20 September 2022, which makes Rennes the smallest city in the world to have two metro lines. Jean-Yves Chapuis is an urban planner, former vice president of Rennes Métropole and author of Rennes, the city of the archipelago (published by Aube, 2013).
A case of urban planning
Rennes has experienced very strong demographic growth and this growth is expected to remain strong for decades to come. How to absorb this population growth without destroying the rich agricultural land surrounding the city? The answer has long been to protect this green belt.
The city of the archipelago designates an exceptional urban planning choice: while almost all the agglomerations have experienced, in France as elsewhere, a strong and continuous uncontrolled urban expansion since the Second World War, the municipal authorities of Rennes have chosen to preserve the agricultural belt of the city, which it does not extend beyond its ring road. The growth took place further away, through the densification of the village of large rural centers that became small ones. It is this particular urban organism, consisting of a dense agglomeration connected to large secondary centers surrounded by agricultural land, which is designated with the concept of “city-archipelago”. Like other urban concepts, that of the city of the archipelago is both prospective, since it designated a possible or desirable future for the city, and performative, since the project is now a reality.
The need for a second metro line arises from the imperative of ecological transition, soft mobility and public transport which must replace individual vehicles with internal combustion engines. However, the metro line does not exceed the limit of the ring road, which raises the question of the ability of the inhabitants of the “archipelago” to reach the center of the agglomeration. The urban planner’s response is to integrate the two metro lines into a tram and bus network intended to provide a finer and wider service. The metropolis site also indicates the existence of park facilities and rides.
(JBB), September 2022.
To complete
On the new metro line
About the city of the archipelago
- Émeline Cazi, « Rennes, an archipelago city put to the test by the density of its population “, The worldJanuary 13, 2022.
- Henri-Noël Ruiz, « City of the archipelago: Audiar extends the debate “, Public placeurban magazine Rennes Saint-Malo, n. 33, January-February 2015.
- Jean-Yves Chapuis, Rennes, the city of the archipelago. Interviews with Jean Viard, ed. de l’Aube, 2013. 176 p.
- Jean-Yves Chapuis, Rennes: The city of the archipelago and its corollary: The neighboring city “, Annals of Mines, vol. 52, n. 4, 2008, p. 37-43.
Read also, on Geoconfluences
- Raymond Woessner, « From tramway to the bus on its website, a geographical account of a French urban passion “, GeoconfluencesSeptember 2019.
- Maryame Amarouche and Eric Charmes, West Lyon and the fight against urban sprawl. The “thickened village” as a compromise between national politics and local interests “, GeoconfluencesOctober 2019.
- Chiara Fonticelli, « Densification under constraint: construction of buildings in the suburbs of the Ile-de-France region “, GeoconfluencesApril 2020.
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