“Oh, is it pedestrian?” Just arrived from Paris for the Delta Festival, Lamine and Laura, 25, hadn’t really paid attention to the Olympian calm reigning on Friday morning in the Old Port in Marseille. Just took the time to order a drink in a juice bar at the foot of the Panier, setting up tables outside. We explain to them that usually, buses, the Little Train and cars in one direction of traffic pass and that for the summer, the municipality is testing two months completely pedestrian in the Old Port, on the town hall side. End of the operation this Sunday.
In their defense, no one walks on the road, preferring to stroll near the water or take advantage of the few wooden deckchairs installed around the large planter (with mist), near the departure of the ferry-boat. “It’s nice, there is no noise, at first glance it’s nice”, judge the friends. “And the ‘Marseille summer’ signage that we see everywhere, it’s stupid, but it attracts, we say to ourselves that there is a real program, we feel that the town hall wanted to do something, I appreciate it, ”adds Laura.
“It annoys everyone”
A little further on, the “Marseille summer” shed provides information to the first passers-by. A father who is looking for the departure of the Little Train, postponed to the bottom of the Canebière, a group of friends who want to know what to do in Marseille. On the slate, the activities of the day, “well-being coach” at Place Bargemon, and “road track” and other outdoor cinema do not really interest them: “We don’t want to do any entertainment, we just pass” . The person from the tourist office tells them about the Islands of Frioul, deploying the plan of Marseille.
“Yes, it is good for tourists in a pinch, although it is useless, they walk on the sidewalks, but not for the Marseillais”, loose a merchant of the rue de la Loge, behind the Old Port. “For the delivery men, it’s horrible, in addition they take fines, and the honking at any time, it annoys everyone,” he continues. Frankly, let them first stop making planes and boats leave, they are the ones who pollute the most! “Not to mention the loss of tourists from the Little Train, which he said has repercussions on turnover.
“It is to be improved”
Pierre, who works in a business in a side street in the Old Port, also measures the impact of the departure of the Little Train. “That said, we were not against pedestrianization per se, but behind it did not follow. It remains a place of passage, I am not sure that everything has been done to make it a place of life. »He is one of the rare traders in the Old Port to agree to answer, as if the evocation of the subject, near the central town hall, or the fed up with questions about the health pass, favored careful silence.
“It lacks a little greenery, animation, it needs to be improved,” says a waitress who came from Paris for the season. “There is not a parasol when the sun is beating, three flowers, a sprayer, we feel that it is not yet broken in, she smiles. In their defense, this is the first year. »President of the CIQ (neighborhood interest committee) of the Vieux-Port-Hôtel-de-Ville, Denise Renucci has a nuanced opinion on the question. “The neighborhood is more peaceful in the morning and during the week, it’s calm, it’s pleasant,” she testifies.
“But the pedestrianization effect, combined with the overcrowding that we have known for two years in summer, has amplified the nuisance”, she adds, citing the traffic jams, especially in the streets Bonneterie and de la République, and ” the significant development of night-time grocery stores. “According to her, pedestrianization would rather be tested” over a calm and normal period, when the city finds itself. »After the summer, an autumn in Marseille?