in this seaside town, safety chicanes as soon as they are installed, as soon as they are removed

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It was to be a test, a temporary device, the time to assess the impact on traffic on this major axis of the municipality which hosts more than 6,000 vehicles per day on average.

Intended to slow down vehicles, chicanes from rue de Nantes, in Pornic (Loire-Atlantique), will have only lived a few hours, Thursday November 7, 2024.

They were not yet all deployed (two out of three) when the municipality took the decision during the day of stop everythingasking the company in charge of installing disassemble at the same time the different elements already fixed to the ground.

Big traffic jams at the entrance to Pornic

Because as soon as they were put in place, the chicanes caused significant traffic jams at the entrance to the city, in front of stunned residents and very angry motorists, and Internet users who were also panicking on social networks.

“City services remained on site all day. When we saw the result, we decided to gradually remove several of them, but that didn't change anything, notes the works assistant, Isabelle Rondineau, who visited the site three times in the day of Thursday.

We then removed the device which is not adapted here to the configuration of the road. We must maintain fluidity on this axis, while being aware of the speed problem, since 80% of vehicles do not respect the 30 km/h limit.

The educational radar will then be maintained. “We have to control the speed here, we are going to look for another solution, taking the time to think about it and perhaps put another device in place,” said Isabelle Rondineau, who recalls that the demand for more road safety on the rue de Nantes has been formulated on several occasions by the association Riverains invested vigilant and attentive (Rive), also concerned about the future increase in population density in the district.

An accident on the Blue Route has increased traffic jams

Why this failure? “On paper, it worked, but in practice, it didn’t work. If people were driving at 30 km/h maximum, it would have worked,” says Isabelle Rondineau, who was in “a logic of consultation and listening” with the residents of the neighborhood. “In addition, there was a car which burned on the Blue Route on Thursday afternoon, with a traffic delay which did not help anything. »

A “limited” cost, according to the deputy mayor

A mishap which nevertheless has a cost for the city (which has not yet been disclosed but which would be “limited”, assures the deputy mayor), which called on a service provider to carry out these very ephemeral developments.

“We are sorry that we have not been able to take this security project further at this time. Fortunately, the arrangements were quickly removed to avoid further disorder,” says Isabelle Rondineau, who admits a “collective errorfortunately not serious.

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