Last Monday, June 12, 2023, the political meeting for consultation and finalization of the ” Mobidf map », intended to define the objectives and actions of the Île-de-France region in terms of mobility by 2030. Public transport, the place of cycling, sharing of urban roads… all the subjects are covered there.
If the presentation of the plan to the board of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) is scheduled for next October, the first discussions show that there is still work to be done to agree all the parties. The regional opposition denouncing massive support for the individual car of Valérie Pécresse, president of the region and of IDFM. For 20 minutesDavid Belliard, vice-president of IDFM and deputy mayor of Paris in charge of the transformation of public space, transport, mobility and roads, takes a stand.
You do not seem optimistic at the end of this first consultation, can you explain why?
The regional majority, headed by Valérie Pécresse, presented the first version of the Ile-de-France mobility plan to us. It is an extremely important document since it is the one that will frame the region’s strategy for the next few years in terms of mobility. A strategy to which the City of Paris will have to integrate into its regulatory documents. After reading this document, I see that the position of the regional majority is still not the right one.
Can you explain to us why?
Because it is necessary to look at the reality and the heart of the documents which are proposed. Whether in the SDRIF (the master plan for the Ile-de-France region – Editor’s note) or the Regional express car plan (CER), one of the only solutions proposed is the expansion of existing roads and the creation of new highways. For the CER, they propose the creation of new reserved lanes, where the urgency is to reduce the space reserved for cars. The SDRIF recommends continuing to make the Greater Paris Metropolis a structuring road “hub” which must be “consolidated”. That is to say that to fight against congestion, it would be necessary to increase and widen the lane dedicated to motorists.
Wouldn’t this be a solution to the traffic problems of Ile-de-France residents?
It’s been known since the 1960s that the more lanes you create, the more people use the car and the more congestion you create. Take the example of Los Angeles, it is a city that offers 2×9 lanes and it is one of the most congested cities in the world.
However, Valérie Pécresse has repeatedly encouraged carpooling…
It’s cynical when you see his frontal opposition to the lane dedicated to carpooling and public transport on the ring road… There are words and there are actions. Today, everyone agrees that the impact of the individual car must be reduced. No one is going to venture to say the opposite. But the reality that Valérie Pécresse and her team are preparing is an “all individual car” policy. An old-fashioned policy, of the renovated Pompidou, with a good coat of greenwashing on top. We see it in their leitmotif of the campaign they are leading against any transformation of the ring road: “Don’t touch my ring road”. It is the great return of the old world centered on the car. We have to get out of this logic.
What do you mean ?
There is a need to change our mobility models and not only in urban centers. We need to get out of the motorized “all individual” to move towards “softer” modes of transport, such as cycling, and more collective. This means prioritizing public transport in our policy. People are dying of heat taking the metro or the RER! It is a climate challenge, but also a public health one to improve air quality and reduce noise pollution. And more generally, it is a question of recovering space and transforming our city centers to avoid the artificialization of the soil with new roads and motorways which lead to unbridled urban sprawl.
We must get out of this frozen vision of the current network (master network, structuring network, secondary network) and have a more forward-looking vision. For example, we are asking the question of the future of peripheral-type motorways in the heart of the city. Can we make more peaceful paths out of it? Perhaps an urban boulevard? Because there are people who live 30, 40 or 50 meters from the ring road and who are overexposed to its literally unbearable nuisances.
But there are strong inequalities in the region when it comes to public transport and soft mobility, can’t you ignore them?
Absolutely. The situation in Paris is very unique because there are many alternatives such as the bus, the metro, the Vélib’, etc. There are many ways to get around without having to use a private car. But this is not the case for a large part of Île-de-France. But instead of thinking “They have to use their car”, we have to offer alternatives to 100% of the population of the region. This is what should mobilize us as elected officials. This is why we support the extensions of lines 11, 12, 14 or 15 of the metro, for example. This is also why we are working on the issue of the bus, which is essential. I also met Jean Castex, CEO of the RATP, about a quantitative and qualitative improvement of our public transport to protect the routes of the buses, which are alternatives to the individual car.
I know that it will be difficult to offer a complete alternative to all the inhabitants of Île-de-France, there are holes in the racket. But it is the horizon that we must aim for.
So what to do for those who live far from the Parisian urban center and public transport but who have to move?
These are not the people who are targeted. Because precisely, they are in gray areas, and assigned to their individual vehicle. All these people are paying for the consequences of development policies centered on the car and the inaction of successive governments on the development of daily public transport. It is a territorial big bang of Ile-de-France that it would take to get out of automobile dependence. By bringing places of work and leisure closer to places of residence, switching to walking or cycling becomes the solution. But today, there is also an urgent need to massively focus aid on these populations so that they can have low-emission vehicles, which comply with the rules of ZFEs (Low Emission Zones). And that thanks to the reduction in the number of private cars, of those who have public transport, these populations can benefit from reduced but peaceful road networks. The objective here is not to completely eliminate the car, but to stop its massive use.