ENVIRONMENT – The revolt is intensifying. The Île-de-France region adopted, this Wednesday, September 11, a motion calling on the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo to ” give up “ to its plan to limit the maximum speed on the Paris ring road to 50 km/h from October 1.
Speed on the Paris ring road will drop from 70 to 50 km/h on October 1, announces Anne Hidalgo
The Île-de-France region, chaired by Valérie Pécresse (LR), proposes, instead, “the installation of new soundproofing coatings” which it considers more effective in reducing noise pollution, and which it is prepared to finance half of, it specifies in a press release.
“The most modest workers” embarrassed, according to Pécresse
Denouncing a decision “one-sided, antisocial and ineffective” of the mayor of Paris, the Île-de-France region, who wishes “to have management skills transferred to them” of the ring road, believes that new soundproofing coatings would make it possible to “divide the noise by five (of the order of -7 decibels)” pour “the 30,000 residents of the ring road particularly affected” by noise pollution, versus only “-2 to -3 decibels” with the speed limit at 50 km/h.
“On the ring road during the day, the average speed is 36 km/h. So it’s not the daytime workers that we’re going to inconvenience with this speed reduction, it’s the night workers, the workers with staggered hours, the most modest workers, those who have no choice and who have to take the car.”Valérie Pécresse pleaded again on Wednesday before the region’s elected officials, gathered to vote on the regional planning strategy until 2040.
Consultation and expertise requested by Laurent Nuñez
She gave the example of a “worker from Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis) who has to go to Issy-les-Moulineaux in the middle of the night: if we reduce his speed from 70 to 50 km/h, he will lose 6 minutes on the way there, 6 minutes on the way back, or 12 minutes of sleep”.
Just like the president of the Île-de-France region, the Paris police prefecture, which confirms having been approached by the capital about this project, is not really in favor of it. The police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, estimated on September 9 to The Tribune that this measure “could have significant consequences in terms of travel times for users, with significant spillover effects on secondary roads, amplifying traffic difficulties throughout the Paris region.” This is why he is demanding a “expertise of State services, responsible for the national Ile-de-France network, and a consultation of neighboring public authorities”.
The municipal opposition is also up in arms. “The change to a 50 km/h speed limit for the ring road, decided unilaterally by Anne Hidalgo, does not comply with any of the prior recommendations of the 2019 information mission report on the ring road”denounced the Changer Paris group, to which Rachida Dati belongs, quoted by The Echoes. The Capital Union, made up of elected LR and Horizons representatives, denounces, for its part, a “political calculation” which will have little effect on “reduce pollution.”
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