Monster traffic jams at the entrances to Lyon, taxis block the Lyon Sud hospital

Since dawn, the entrances to the Lyon metropolitan area have been extremely disrupted by heavy traffic jams. Taxi drivers who fear a drop in medical transport prices are blocking entrances to Lyon and filtering access to hospitals.

Feyzin, at the southern entrance to Lyon. From 6 a.m. this Monday morning, December 2, 2024, 150 taxis from Loire and Haute-Loire set up on the A7 motorway. One lane remains free for cars, but traffic saturates very quickly. The taxi drivers present are waiting, they say, for several hundred of their colleagues from Isère.

And the situation is no different at the other entrances to Lyon. In total, nearly 3,000 taxis came from all the departments of the region, but also from Burgundy and Paris who have been blocking entrances and exits from Lyon since 5 a.m. this Monday.

Taxi drivers are protesting against a proposed new pricing for medical transport, proposed by the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM). Pricing considered unfavorable to taxis, particularly those in rural areas.

At 8 a.m., more than 300 taxis from Isère and Drôme head towards the blocking of the A7/D301 interchange. Others have blocked the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier toll since 6:30 a.m. this Monday morning, on the A40, before leaving to join Lyon to block the A43 at the Porte des Alpes interchange.

Taxis are also mobilized in front of most hospitals in the Lyon area. The reason for this moody movement is indeed based on a possible reduction in the pricing of medical transport.

From 10 a.m., access to theThe Lyon Sud hospital in Oullins-Pierre-Bénite were blocked by more than a hundred taxis. Filter blockages also at the Édouard Herriot hospital, the Croix-Rousse hospital, the Lyon-Villeurbanne Médipôle and the Jean-Mermoz private hospital.

But it is at the southern access to Lyon that the situation is most tense. The travel time is thus multiplied by 4 between Givors and Lyon: it takes more than an hour and a half to connect the two city centers.

Near Saint-Fons, in the direction of Lyon, at 8:30 a.m. there were more than 7 km of traffic jams between Sérézin-du-Rhône and Saint-Fons.

Further south, nearly 15 km of slowdowns are also reported between Vienne and Chasse-sur-Rhône.

Taxi drivers are protesting against new lower pricing for medical transport, proposed by the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) and an obligation to make “shared taxi“. This pricing is considered unfavorable by taxi drivers, particularly those in rural areas.

“Not only will we wait a very long time to fill the car, we will make endless rounds, but also, we will deteriorate the service that we have put in place for years with patients.“, explains to AFP Abdel Green, president of the Federation of Independent Taxis of the Rhône.

“The patient is not a guy you take to the airport or to a nightclub or to the hairdresser. He's someone who looks forward to you because you may be the only person he sees during the week and it's an outing for him. He tells you about his little ailments, he tells you about his little family, you take him to the hospital, sometimes you even help him get dressed when he is discharged from hospital.“, adds the manager. “We are just comparing ourselves to parcel carriers. Except we transport humans” he laments.

Traffic difficulties on the outskirts of Lyon and in the city are expected to last a good part of the day since a bivouac is planned by taxi drivers at 18 on Place Bellecour, in the heart of Lyon.

The Prefect of Rhône calls on motorists to postpone their trips, to use the
public transport or teleworking. Road users are also called to be extremely vigilant and calm when approaching blockage points.