More bicycles, buses and RER: how Bordeaux wants to overcome traffic jams

Stéphane Place, edited by Antoine Terrel 8:19 am, September 11, 2021

REPORTING

Bordeaux wants to overcome traffic jams.

The PS president of the Metropolis, Alain Anziani, has just presented the new mobility scheme for the next ten years.

Two-fold cycle paths, more buses and RERs, vehicle traffic reduced by 10% are among the stated objectives.

A crucial project for the city, while the Bordeaux agglomeration is one of the most congested in France. 

"More room for soft mobility"

At 25 million euros per kilometer, the all-tram is no longer the solution, says the socialist president of the Bordeaux metropolis, the third most congested agglomeration in France. In the next ten years, Alain Anziani is therefore focusing on the express bus, with dedicated lanes, and on the metropolitan RER. "The rails are there. The cost is about a billion. We have to settle that with the SNCF, with the region and with Europe," he explains.

For the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, motorists must change their habits.

"When you see that in the metropolis, half of the trips by car are made over less than two kilometers. You must not be anti-car, but you must give more space to soft mobility: walking, cycling, public transport, ”he says. 

An insufficient plan

And the vice-president of the Bordeaux metropolis, mayor of Bègles, Clément Rossignol-Puech, is also counting on the state to limit the arrival of massive trucks on the bypass to certain times.

"We asked the State to adjust the toll prices according to the timetable so that it costs more during rush hour, so that heavy goods vehicles postpone their arrival in the Bordeaux area to reduce the number of corks ", he explains.

"It will have a very strong effect if we get there."

But already, elected officials of the agglomeration estimate that this plan will be insufficient in a metropolis which welcomes 10,000 new inhabitants per year.