The mayor of Paris has faced a massive backlash during a consultation on a plan to reserve a ring road lane for public transport and car sharing after the 2024 Olympics.

According to Deputy Mayor Ann Hidalgo, the municipality plans “edit” his project by mid-July.

Mass rejection

“We are going to make changes compared to the initial version of the project”– said Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy for urban planning, stressing that the electronic public participation (PPVE), which ended on Sunday, was “Consultations, not a referendum”. For his part, David Belyard, assistant commissioner for mobility and roads, said the left-wing leader was going “improve the project and make a decision by mid-July”.

The consultation on the conditions of implementation of this “dedicated channel”, open from April 17 to May 28, recorded slightly more than 6.5 thousand posts, including “about 80-85% were unfavorable”, David Belliard admitted. Opponents of closing the lane for general traffic are the vast majority, some call the project“antisocial” and intended for “drive out the inhabitants of Ile-de-France”.

David Belyard argues that the municipality “I will take negative comments into account” while avoiding “completely distort the project”.

An event aimed at encouraging car sharing and reducing the number of cars

In a column published Sunday in JDD, local right-wing elected officials, including Valerie Pecress, president of the Ile-de-France region, ask Anne Hidalgo “facilitate consultation”. They remember it “More than a million vehicles rotate every day” on the ring road, 80% of which are not Parisians.

This reserve lane, designed to reduce pollution, should be activated in the left lane in the morning and evening, weekdays and/or weekends, according to the initial proposal of the mayor’s office. The City Hall also plans to lower the speed limit on the ring road from 70 to 50 km/h permanently or only if there is a reserve lane.

The third controversial issue concerns the list of vehicles allowed to drive. According to the original project of the town hall, any vehicle carrying at least two peopleincluding the driver, would be considered carpooling, while, according to the City Hall, about 80% of trips are made alone.

This reserved lane will be inherited from the “Olympic lane”, which will allow athletes, rescuers and officials to get safely and quickly from the accommodation to the competition venues during the Olympic Games. Two sections of state-run motorways in the suburbs of Paris will also have to undergo this transformation during and after the Olympic Games.