In Nice, Boulevard Gambetta is looking for a new way

Friday morning at 8:30 am on Boulevard Gambetta.

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• The cycle path at the bottom of Boulevard Gambetta is still controversial.

• The neighborhood committee is calling for its suspension, the pro-bikes are organizing a demonstration.

• On site, the new layout has transformed the boulevard.

A one kilometer ribbon of yellow asphalt crystallizes the tensions on the Place du Vélo in Nice.

The bottom of Boulevard Gambetta, north-south axis structuring the city center, has been prohibited for cars (and all individual motorized vehicles) since the deconfinement of May 11.

Paradise for cyclists, hell for traders and puzzles for motorists?

The district committee of the Imperial Park-Gambetta calls for "the reestablishment of traffic for vehicles" because "the survival of traders is at stake."

Associations promoting the little queen, such as Nice à Vélo, campaign "for the maintenance of a cycle path on Boulevard Gambetta" with a petition that has already collected more than 2,300 signatures, and call for a rally on Saturday noon at Place Franklin.

Bicycles ... and scooters

Between the two, the town hall is launching a consultation and preparing a “high level of service” electric bus project with a capacity of 30,000 passengers per day.

While waiting for new developments, one thing is clear: in the middle of the morning rush hour, the axis has become incredibly peaceful.

It is 8:30 am and we are far from the usual traffic jam of the busy streets of the city of Nice.

Here, traffic is fluid, on the lanes reserved for buses as on the famous two-way cycle path all painted in yellow.

We meet bicycles, electric scooters, “cargo” with pedals, single wheel… Anything that rolls in silence.

Around 3,000 people would use it each.

Little more than scooters ...

"The police never checked me"

For the "motorized", Gambetta remains a shortcut.

"I pass there every day and the police have never checked me" assures a young man on a scooter, persuaded besides to be in his right: "it's over, it was just after the confinement. traffic ban there, now we can ”.

The removal of the track on the part of the boulevard to the north of the railway line seems to have sown some confusion among some, that the presence of the “BUS” marking on the ground and the “no-way” signs at each intersection are not sufficient to dispel.

In the bus lanes, there are also motorists who get lost.

Sometimes really lost;

often aware that they have nothing to do there.

Some don't care, others have a good excuse: "I live in Gambetta, just above, I drop my daughter off at school," explains a young mother at the corner of rue Dante.

The only ones absent, ultimately, are the police.

Omnipresent during the redevelopment of the boulevard, they are now invisible.

But despite the "motorized" who have nothing to do there, and the bikes which are free from red lights, Gambetta version "cyclable" is a haven of peace.

It is enough to pass the Mathis way to realize it.

Joining the northern part of the boulevard, open to motorized traffic, means falling into the noise, the smell of exhaust and the stress.

Another world, or another time.

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