The rue de Metz, in Toulouse.Illustration.

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H. Menal - 20 Minutes

  • Toulouse Métropole announces that the redevelopment of Toulouse city center will continue via rue de Metz.

  • The idea is to promote better cohabitation between soft modes and cars.

  • A consultation will be conducted in the spring and the Pont-Neuf has every chance of being invited into the debate.

Since the rue d'Alsace is pedestrianized, it is the most circulating artery in downtown Toulouse.

The wide rue de Metz - where buses, cars and cyclists sometimes coexist with difficulty, not to mention pedestrians - will, in turn, be redesigned.

Toulouse Métrople wants to "secure the different modes of travel" and announces to do this a consultation that will begin in the spring.

The latter "will allow all the users of this axis to be involved", assures the community, which notably cites "residents, associations and traders".

So, in what spirit will the rue de Metz be redeveloped?

In the one which guides the plans of the Catalan architect Joan Busquets to whom we already owe the new Saint-Sernin or Saint-Pierre squares.

Nothing has been decided yet, but it is a question of "calming traffic in order to bring safety and comfort to cycles, pedestrians and other soft modes".

The idea is also to revegetate a street bordered by absolutely no trees and to make it more convivial with the prospect of hosting “big events”.

The unmissable Pont-Neuf

The spring debate will focus exclusively on the part between the boulevards and Esquirol.

But it will be difficult not to widen it to the Pont-Neuf, crossed by 9,000 cars per day, and on which the vast majority of motorists who enter the rue de Metz set off.

A little less than two years ago, in April 2019, associations of users of soft modes demonstrated to demand the prohibition of the Pont-Neuf to cars and more generally to suppress the east-west transit traffic that passes through the rue de Metz.

At that time, Jean-Michel Lattes, Assistant for Mobility, refused to "play sorcerer's apprentice", by removing one of the rare possibilities of crossing the Garonne.

He did not close the door to the prospect of a Pont-Neuf without a motorized vehicle, but set the deadline for the commissioning of metro line 3, i.e. 2025 at the time, but 2028 now.

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  • Town planning

  • Toulouse