• The Principality has to deal with very heavy road traffic, in particular because of "metropolitan residents who go to Monaco to work", recalls Joseph Ségura, vice-president of Nice Côte d'Azur.

  • The Prince's government is making its public transport free for two months to "reposition buses as the preferred means of transport" and "create a virtuous circle making it possible to achieve -20% intramural traffic".

From our special correspondent in Monaco,

In Monaco, it's not just the limousines of the happy few, helicopters and yachts to get around.

The Principality has to deal with very heavy road traffic.

Mainly coming from outside.

Thursday, the elected representatives of the Nice Côte d'Azur metropolis were also trying to resolve the problem of "the constant increase in access difficulties" to this neighboring state.

Two deliberations were passed.

In the municipality of Cap d'Ail, at the gates of the Rock, a roundabout must be widened and a funnel must be drilled along the RM 6007. This axis sees 30,000 vehicles pass by every day, "mostly metropolitan residents, who go to Monaco to work”, recalls Joseph Ségura, the vice-president of the French community.

Victim of these traffic jams, the Principality therefore pays for its attractiveness.

“And it has become really very complicated to circulate”, confirms a resident on the spot.

So other avenues are also being explored.

Since the beginning of the week, the princely government has made its 75 km of bus lines free, including the one that runs at night and the water bus that crosses one of its ports.

A test on the mode "to try it is to adopt it"

A two-month experiment, until Sunday 27 November, to "encourage the use of public transport in order to make traffic more fluid, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the quality of life of Monegasques, residents, commuters and visitors to the Principality".

After this period, you will have to pay the price of the ticket again, at 2 euros each.

"The objective is not to make the buses free but to trigger the desire to take them," explains the Monegasque government.

It is a commercial offer on the mode "to try it, it is to adopt it".

Especially since attendance had dropped, as elsewhere, since the start of the health crisis linked to Covid-19, from 6,575,295 validations in 2019, to 4,894,374 last year.



So during these two months, "we would especially like to capture motorists", confirms to

20 Minutes

Roland de Rechniewski, the director of operations of the Compagnie des autobus de Monaco (CAM).

In 2021, a year still marked by greater use of telework, Imsee, the Monegasque Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, recorded an average of 95,435 daily road entries and exits.

The train and soon the boat?

With its test, the Principality hopes to “reposition buses as the preferred means of transport” and “create a virtuous circle making it possible to achieve -20% intramural traffic”.

Would it already be necessary for these motorists to be converted to arrive as far as Monaco without their car?

There are regular buses that provide service from Nice or Menton.

And the train solution which has already been adopted by a good number of French workers.

Monaco station, also driven by tourism, is also the third in the Paca region after Marseille Saint-Charles and Nice-Ville.

But some images of crowded cars could discourage convinced motorists.

“I live in Saint-Laurent-du-Var.

In the morning, to come, it's fine.

There is room.

But in the evening, it's war.

We are all piled up on top of each other, ”says a TER subscriber.

At the Monaco train station bus stop, a 20-year-old student just out of the bus from Menton is waiting for her connection to join the Albert-1er high school.

"I always do that.

Other young people I know don't want to let go of their cars despite the traffic jams.

»

There remains the maritime solution to convince them.

But the project of a maritime shuttle between Nice and Monaco, mentioned for several years, will not finally be operational, at least, before 2026, as

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revealed on Thursday.

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