In a narrow room with stone walls, on the first floorCafé 203 in the first arrondissement, around ten members of Collective of defenders of Lyon and Greater Lyon gathered on Thursday, January 23, to take stock of an investigation launched by them in October 2024. Its name: “the great citizen initiative consultation”.
This brought together, in the space of two months of consultation on social networksnext to 3,400 responses from residents (75%) and professionals (25%) spread across all the districts of Lyon and several municipalities in the Metropolis.
The desire behind this approach is to report on the “unprecedented and growing protest” of the population in terms ofland use planningperceived as “an ideological and punitive project”.
It is this phenomenon which pushed a handful of traders, entrepreneurs and residents of Lyon to come together, in May 2024, to make their voices heard through the Collective of Defenders of Lyon.
Defenders of Lyon: general dissatisfaction with the key projects of the Metropolis
Among the the most contested urban projects according to the survey, there are narrowing of Servient Streetin the 3e district, and tracks on the banks of the Rhônethe closure of the Peninsula and theextension of the Low Emission Zone (ZFE).
The impacts perceived by the survey participants would, for the most part, be negative. Leading to a worsening traffic jams and long journeys – while 60% say they use the car as the dominant mode of travel – a difficulty growing for customers to access shops in central areasa majority rejection of proposals for alternatives to the car, and doubts about the effectiveness of current measures concerning pollution reduction.
And visibly general discontentparticularly in the face of key projects of the Métropole de Lyon, which the members of the collective claim to be reliable: “Those consulted could say when they were not concerned. We cannot be blamed for having been dogmatic”.
-Everyone was surprised by the number of online comments left following the survey, which totaled 1,300. “We were even treated to poetry, declarations of love for the city of Lyon,” testifies, amused, one of the volunteers.
“We represent Lyon and must be listened to, otherwise it is a denial of democracy”
Beyond the criticized projects, it is thelack of dialogue and the feeling of exclusion from decision-making processes which are denounced:
“Today, we are 13,000 signatories. We cannot act as if we do not exist. We represent Lyon and must be listened to otherwise, it is a denial of democracy. The goal is to build together and that town hall and Métropole work with us and not against us”.
Some, a little more upset still, have “the feeling of being in a sort of little chaos” and that he is “impossible to discuss, we are told it will be like this!”.
The Collective of Defenders of Lyon and Greater Lyon continues its call for mobilization pour “to unite and weigh” on future decisions regardingurban planning.
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