“The Highway of the Sun / East under the snow”, sang Adamo in 1979. In this mid-July 2022, the singer would rather see the A7 in the heat wave. Times change, but not the traffic on the busiest motorway in France, especially during the first departures on vacation, and as you approach the July 14 bridge.
One section, in particular, puts the nerves of busy holidaymakers to the test: the one that goes from Lyon to Orange. An almost uninterrupted stream of cars passes through it, but not only by French holidaymakers.
Several highways join the A7
The first reason, “is that from the Rhône Valley, the A7 serves Occitanie, the Mediterranean, Spain, which are favorite destinations for tourists, whether French, Benelux , Germany or Switzerland,” says Samuel Beauchef, communication manager at Vinci Autoroutes.
The second is that “many highways arrive on the A7, up to the junction at Orange,” he adds. “At the entrance to the A7 comes the A6, motorways from Alsace, the Grand Est, and at Valence, comes the motorway from the Alps. All come to bring additional traffic. »
Accidents, the leading cause of traffic jams
However, Samuel Beauchef remarks that “even during periods of heavy traffic in the summer, if there is no accident, things are going well. Saturday, July 9, we had no traffic jams, there were just slowdowns, because we set up speed regulation on certain portions, which went from 130 to 110. This made it possible to smooth traffic , with certainly longer journey times: we counted between 3 and 4 hours between Valence and Orange. »
Provided, of course, that there is no breakdown or accident, which “impacts the remaining lanes, and it clogs up quite quickly. Last year, we had counted between 5 and 6 hours between Valence and Orange because several cars had brushed too closely, on different sectors”, remarks Samuel Beauchef.
Favor alternative routes, if you have time
Fabrice Vella, forecaster at Bison Futé, recalls that if the A7 is “excessively congested”, it is not only in summer: “We call it the highway of the sun, but it is not limited to that, because it also sees a lot of freight going through. If a heavy goods vehicle leaves Poland to go to Spain, it will go through the A7, and therefore through this Lyon-Valence section. All traffic coming from the Benelux to Spain or Italy as well. »
In the absence of being able to enlarge the A7, how to avoid traffic jams in this section? “We are trying to make relief routes, like the A75, but that was not enough”, recognizes Fabrice Vella. We should rather “develop rail freight, find alternatives to the car…”
And promote alternate routes? “Yes, but it’s another way of traveling: it won’t be useful for heavy goods vehicles, who don’t have time to lose for their deliveries,” continues the forecaster. “But for summer vacationers, alternative routes can be interesting if they are not in a hurry, if they do not have a rental to recover. And that would help unclog the A7, ”he admits. As Anaïs and Didier Barbelivien sang in “Quitter l’autoroute”: “It’s crazy how pretty it can be, a departmental road”…