Traffic jam at the entrance to the Fourvière tunnel. Illustrative image. @WilliamPham
The former president of the Métropole de Lyon, David Kimelfeld attacked the inaction of the environmentalist executive regarding the transformation of the M6 and M7 which cross Lyon.
The metropolitan council on Monday, December 16 was an opportunity for the former president of the Métropole de Lyon, David Kimelfeld, to put the subject of the future of the M6 and M7 in Lyon back on the table, “an elephant in the room“, he considers. During a long prior intervention in the form of a political manifesto, when he had just announced the creation of a new social-democratic political group, David Kimelfeld deplored that his successor Bruno Bernard is not working any further to develop the M6 and M7 axes, which he obtained the decommissioning of during his mandate.
“You will be able to pedestrianize half of the Metropolis and green the other if you will not have solved this vital problem for our Metropolis”
“This elephant in the room that no one talks about anymore in your majority is the old A6/A7 motorway which disfigures our territory, which separates our neighborhoods, which pollutes our lungs, our ears and our eyes“, lamented the former president of the Metropolis of Lyon. David Kimelfeld thus accused Bruno Bernard of having “abandoned the fight, removed the Girondins pedestrian bridge between Gerland and Confluence and renounced any ambition on this issue“.
The environmentalist president of the Metropolis Bruno Bernard, for his part, qualified the “decisive breakthrough” mentioned by David Kimelfeld regarding the downgrading of the two axes, recalling that this decision transferred additional costs to the responsibility of the Lyon Metropolis, “without having gained in terms of weight in decisions concerning infrastructure“. Indeed, due to the number of vehicles circulating on the axis, the Metropolis must obtain State approval for any modification, despite its downgrading.
But for David Kimelfeld, thinking about the future of these highways crossing Lyon is an imperative necessity. “You will be able, Mr. President, to roll out all the kilometers of cycle paths you want, all the tram lines you want, you will be able to pedestrianize half of the Metropolis and green the other until you have solved this vital problem for our Metropolis that this interrupted transhumance of cars and trucks which, to go from Paris to Marseille, come to suffocate our urban area“, he concluded.
