The city of Bordeaux will limit the speed of car traffic to 30 km / h in almost all of its streets from January 2022, announced Wednesday, September 15, the city’s environmental mayor, Pierre Hurmic.
This limitation will apply to nearly 9 out of 10 streets throughout the city, with the exception of the urban boulevards and the quays of the Garonne surrounding the Gironde capital on its two banks, which will remain at 50 km / h, detailed M Hurmic (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV) during a back-to-school press conference.
This decision goes “Appease the neighborhoods”, “Reduce the number of cars in circulation” in this regularly congested city, and “Lower pollution”, said the mayor, recalling that fine particle pollution, partly emitted by automobile traffic, causes the death of 600 people each year in the Bordeaux metropolis.
Triple the lanes for buses and bicycles
“Driving slowly does not waste time, and I would like to remind you that the average speed for a car in town is 14 km / h in Bordeaux”, said Mr. Hurmic.
The mayor of Bordeaux also plans by the end of his term in office, in 2026, to triple the corridors where buses and bicycles circulate – from 10 to 35 km -, and to increase the hundred or so people by nearly a third. kilometers of cycle paths existing in the city, explaining that currently “30% of trips of less than 2 km are still made by car”.
Since the end of August, traffic has been limited to 30 km / h in almost all of Paris, other mayors, such as those of Limoges or Lyon, also announced in September the quasi-generalization of this measure in their city.
Regarding the hypercentre, the Bordeaux municipal team wants to increase the pedestrian zone from 40 hectares to 65 hectares by 2023, to make it “One of the largest pedestrian areas in France”, also announced Pierre Hurmic.
www.lemonde.fr