Lussery-Villars can't take driving tests anymore

“There are people who pass their driving test, but also all those who come for screening. Motorcycles, cars and even trucks with trailers. As a result, we did some counting, and we had as much traffic on weekends as during the week! And all this on roads that were not designed to accommodate this much traffic. So we’re starting to get really fed up and we looked at what we could do.” Yvan Stutzmann is the trustee of Lussery-Villars, a village of 473 inhabitants located overlooking the Venoge. It is the source of an inquiry which has just been submitted to the Grand Council.

Like the river dear to Gilles, life should be a long, quiet river in this town bringing together the localities of Lussery and Villars-Lussery, best known until now for its soap box race. But in 2015, the Council of State announced that while waiting for the construction of a new center for the Automobile and Navigation Service (SAN), part of the driving exams would be moved to the TCS center in Cossonay, including Lussery-Villars is barely a kilometer away. “When they leave the center, they go directly to our house,” summarizes the trustee.

Majority of exams

Nine years later, the new SAN center does not seem close to being built and the initially temporary relocations of examinations are becoming permanent. But the majority of the problem comes from the fact that of the 19,519 driving tests organized last year in the canton, 11,983 were in Cossonay. This means that the region saw 61% of Vaud apprentice drivers pass, compared to only 10 to 15% for Aigle, Nyon and Yverdon. Friday afternoon, in a quarter of an hour spent at the entrance to the village for the illustration of this article, our photographer colleague saw five driving school cars pass, one with an L, and four motorcyclists accompanied by a SAN car…

Green MP, but above all trustee of Daillens, a village located just opposite Lussery-Villars, Alberto Mocchi could only be sensitive to this problem. “We are probably a little less impacted, but we still see a lot of these student drivers. And some even do parking exercises in private spaces! I have absolutely nothing against the organization of exams in Cossonay, but I am struck by this imbalance between the regions, which I struggle to understand.

In his inquiry, the deputy trustee therefore asks the Council of State, among other things, on what criteria the distribution of driving tests on the different sites is established. He also asks whether a “more equitable and rational” distribution could be considered. Finally, he imagines the establishment of “relocated” exams.

On additional sites?

“I don't have the impression that organizing a driving test requires significant infrastructure. Why wouldn't it be possible to offer them on additional sites, for example in Payerne, Morges or Vevey? This would spread the traffic load while limiting travel for student drivers.” Incidentally, the two trustees explain that they voluntarily did not involve the Municipality of Cossonay in their approach so as not to put it at odds with the TCS.

When contacted, the SAN officials informed that the problem having been the subject of a questioning at the Grand Council, they reserved the first of their responses to the latter.

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Sylvain Muller has been a journalist for the Vaudoise section since 2005. He is responsible for the Echallens office and as such covers news from the Gros-de-Vaud district.More info

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