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Maxime Cartier
Published on
Dec 25 2024 at 6:08 p.m.
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“We have been alerted to the problem of parking », declares in the preamble Luc Desmarets, deputy for local democracy at the City of Dieppe (Seine-Maritime).
Alongside Bruno Lemarec, head of local democracy, he addressed this subject during the first local democracy meeting, concerning the city center districts, Vauban and Saint-Pierre, organized last November.
The opportunity for the two representatives of the City to explain that a lot of work has been put in place to resolve the problem.
Five proposed scenarios
This work was carried out during the year 2023. During several meetings, elected officials were questioned about the fact that “it’s a mess in the neighborhood,” continues Luc Desmarets.
It is especially during the day that problems are observed, with “a peak of parking saturation between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., because there is a shift change at the hospital.”
To try to resolve the problem, a recent development has been put in place.
A barrier installed at the hospital
“It’s a bit of a parking crisis in the neighborhood,” recognizes this Dieppe hospital employee. This, both for residents and for the caregivers who come to work every day. Around the hospital, there are three car parks: the first, free, is dedicated to visitors and offers 323 spaces. But today it is not only busy with hospital visitors. There are also the vehicles of employees of other companies, staff of the Bonvoisin nursing home, train users or even cinema fans… “It’s a vampire parking lot,” continues the employee.
The two car parks dedicated to staff have 195 and 165 spaces respectively. To avoid any intrusive entry, access is done with a badge. But it happens that their reception capacity is sometimes saturated. “Sometimes, parking lots are used at 110%,” recognizes Luc Desmarets, deputy for local democracy. So, it happens that some park in the neighborhood, “but it’s on the margins” underlines the deputy.
In addition to parking, another problem was highlighted: the circulation of numerous vehicles in hospital spaces. A sort of “shortcut”, for those who come from the end of the Saint-Pierre district to go to the city center. To prevent this abuse, a barrier was installed. It should make traffic flow more smoothly and thus, perhaps, dissuade some people from parking in the neighborhood.
In addition to the parking difficulties, the elected official points out the intersections of vehicles sometimes dangerous and a lack of visibility at certain intersections, because vehicles are poorly parked.
Thus, the technical services and elected officials visited the neighborhood and Luc Desmarets noted “that indeed, parking is anarchic, many vehicles are parked in prohibited locations”. Some in front of garages, others on the other side of the road.
“You should know that all the streets in Dieppe are in alternating parking, that is to say that there is a change of parking every 15 days, except when there is marking on the ground,” recalls Bruno Lemarec .
A survey carried out among residents
An awareness campaign was also carried out last summer. For the Saint-Pierre district, there is ground marking at Thoumyre and Curie streets “in order to optimize parking spaces”.
Based on this observation, a survey was carried out in the neighborhood. One hundred and fifty-eight housing units were identified and in total, 85 responded to the proposals made by the technical services: the first is to keep the situation as is. The second is to go one way through rue Emile-Lebon, rue du Commandant-Denieport and rue Gustave-Lavieuville.
The third proposal is, in addition to these streets, to pass Etienne-Rimbert and l'Abbé-Cochet streets one way. Another proposal suggests increasing the one-way portion of rue Lebourgeois. Finally, the last proposal, “the most extreme”, is to make all the streets concerned one-way.
With parking on both sides, the technical services ensured that this would not pose a problem for the emergency response. “The firefighters did a test and it went well. We pushed the envelope to the end,” underlines Luc Desmarets.
On March 6, 2023, a count was organized in the annex room of city hall. In the end, 42% of residents preferred… not to change anything. The first proposal comes far behind with 20%.
Faced with these results, the local democracy representative finds it “regrettable, because we know there is a problem. With the nursing school and the hospital, we know that the sector is saturated. But we do not despair of proposing new solutions,” he adds.
However, he regrets the time and energy spent for nothing.
Parking prohibited
But if these proposals were not followed up, there were still some changes in the neighborhood. Parking is no longer possible at the intersection of rue de Chanzy and rue de l'Abbé-Cochet, to secure traffic and a yellow line has been created near all the intersections.
The municipality remains open and ready to hear the ideas of residents, “but everyone has to agree,” concludes Luc Desmarets.
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