The Collectif des 4 boulevards in Montpellier issued a sharp letter, sent to elected officials of the city and the metropolis, to deputies and to the media.
Since the summer of 2022, following the closure of avenue Albert Dubout and rue Fabrèges to transit, residents of the 4 boulevards (Orient, Rabelais, Vieussens and Berthelot) have alarmed the media. “We are experiencing unbearable levels of pollution and noise pollution. This situation is obvious to anyone who goes to our neighborhood, but pollution data is also available on ATMO Occitanie (NO2 modeling) and on the Métropole’s open data for car counting.
“ Denounce the mayor’s bad faith and tongue-in-cheek“
“Drawing the consequences of the tragic accidents of 2012 and 2020 on Avenue Albert Dubout and taking the necessary measures to prevent them is the mayor’s duty,” we can read in the collective’s letter. However, to constantly repeat that the closure of Avenue Albert Dubout was the only solution to secure the place and exit from the college, while not justifying the transfer of 16,000 vehicles per day to our boulevards, is neither honest nor true.” Residents also recall that “in candidate Delafosse’s program, there was no question of closing Avenue Albert Dubout, but only of securing it by building a footbridge.”
“False statements that are regularly attributed to us”
“To assert that “people” want to make the 4 boulevards a car-free lane (8’12 of the FR3 show) is fallacious, unless you think that Mr. Delafosse is misinformed, continues the Collectif des 4 boulevards. In May 2023, the Collective proposed a solution where traffic would be shared between Dubout and the 4 boulevards, with a single direction of traffic on each axis and a double cycle lane worthy of the name. »
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“Untruths”
The collective also denounces “untruths”. “Affirm that the choice of 4 boulevards for dual circulation was made due to the absence of children having to cross the boulevards according to the distribution of schools according to school maps (metropolitan council of 06/12/22 ) . However, we checked and it is false, persist the residents of the collective. Many residents of adjacent neighborhoods have to cross the 4 boulevards to get to their school. The height of hypocrisy, a new public school is planned on the site of the ZAC Nouveau Saint Roch3 along Vieussens, which will be added to the two crèches already present on the boulevards. »
“The absence of real consultation with local residents”
Finally, the Collective deplores “the absence of real consultation with local residents and users and the forced passage of traffic changes affecting the 4 boulevards since the summer of 2022”. Before concluding: “there was no traffic forecast, no impact analysis, no search for alternative solutions, just a summons to a neighborhood meeting which unfortunately did not arrive in our mailboxes”.
#French
