It is neither “a rearguard fight”, nor “a project out of time”, they insist. Alain Anziani, PS mayor of Mérignac and president of Bordeaux Métropole, and Philippe Buisson, PS mayor of Libourne and president of Cali (Libournais urban community) on Tuesday launched an “appeal to the State” to relaunching “as soon as possible” studies in favor of a road bypass of Bordeaux.
The word “bypass”, synonymous with sea serpent in Bordeaux as it has been years since the subject resurfaces regularly, has never been pronounced by the two elected officials. “Call it what you want, says Philippe Buisson, but you need a deviation, which can be very loose, around Bordeaux starting from the south and going east. “Vehicles arriving from the south of the bypass, probably at Langon, must be able to have a connection to the north-east of Aquitaine,” confirms Alain Anziani. However, “we are not coming with a specific request on this or that bar, insists Philippe Buisson, we are coming to relaunch a debate in a calm and pragmatic way, because the status quo is untenable. »
“Demobility is not a prospect”
For the mayor of Libourne, who recalled that Bordeaux has climbed to second place this year among the most congested cities in France, “there is a form of aberration in the fact that any vehicle coming from the south of Europe and heading north, inevitably ends up on the ring road. “And this problem” can only get worse, assures Philippe Buisson, “demobility” not being a prospect. It will never be a truth, because mobility is freedom. »
Anticipating criticism, especially from their green allies in the metropolis who do not want to hear about road bypasses, the two elected socialists warn: “we are not morons who know nothing about it, balance Alain Anziani, we know very well the disturbances caused by vehicles. “We are not backwards who would not understand their time, and who would think that there is only the road as a solution”, continues Philippe Buisson. And when Alain Anziani draws his map of the mobility plan, which should increase the share of cars in the metropolis from 50 to 33%, Philippe Buisson recalls that “the first French line of the metropolitan RER was Libourne-Arcachon. We are for the metropolitan RER, but even with the metropolitan RER, you can’t go everywhere. »
“The evaporation theory of vehicles? A chimera »
Green allies who took for their rank in passing. The theory of the evaporation of circulation, supported by ecologists at the town hall of Bordeaux? “A chimera”, sweeps Alain Anziani. The argument put forward by the EELV mayor of Bègles, Clément Rossignol-Puech, who would like the more roads we create, the more traffic increases? “I tend to say that it’s rather the opposite: we make roads because there are vehicles”, answers the president of the metropolis again.
“It’s always easy when you are elected from a territory that is served in terms of infrastructure, to consider that the others do not have to be, adds Philippe Buisson. If Bègles didn’t have the François-Mitterrand bridge, it would be missing. And if there was not one of the largest commercial areas of Gironde [Rives d’Arcins] in Bègles, there would be fewer people on the bypass. »
“An element of drying up the territory”
To the ecologists of the metropolis, Philippe Buisson also opposed the elected representatives of the territories, specifying that he represented a collective of medium-sized towns located about 200 km from the agglomeration of Bordeaux, such as Angoulême, Bergerac, Périgueux, Agen, etc. “I brought them together in Libourne a few weeks ago, and they all share this observation that Bordeaux thrombosis is an element of drying out of the territory, he says. It is in the name of the opening up of the territory, thanks to these bars which would come to irrigate the interior territories by the east of the metropolis, that we wish the updating of this file. »
As for the arguments on road pollution, Phillippe Buisson is convinced that “the road can be virtuous. » « I bet that the day when these famous bars will exist and will alleviate Bordeaux thrombosis, in fifteen to twenty years, the road will be clean. “The elected officials, who recall that “the State has accepted [des projets routiers] in Rouen and Strasbourg” hope that the project can be included in the next State-Region plan contract.