“It’s hellish and aberrant”: residents and motorists exhausted by traffic in Montpellier are waiting for concrete solutions

Nouveau blocage ce jeudi matin. Midi Libre – Giacomo Italiano

Ce jeudi 14 mars, le collectif des Quatre boulevards a encore entrepris une action afin d'être entendu par le maire. 

They are perfectly on point. Megaphone to convey their message, banners, trash cans and barriers to block car traffic and road signs to divert vehicles. And all wearing a mask bearing the image of the mayor of Montpellier Michaël Delafosse.

The blocking of traffic on part of Boulevard Rabelais this Thursday, March 14 from 7:45 a.m. by the collective of residents of Quatre boulevards – boulevards Berthelot, Vieussens, Rabelais and d& rsquo;Orient – who can no longer stand the postponement of traffic in the neighborhood has almost become a formality, even if each time, the members hope that it will be the last .

A symbolic place with the possibility of deferring traffic

"We are still blocking this section of Boulevard Rabelais", explains Marc Le Tourneur, one& nbsp;protesters who made their professional career in urban mobility. He completes: "It's a symbolic place because it is the most impacted by noise, air pollution, but also because it allows traffic to be diverted". The stated objective is not to paralyze traffic or annoy motorists. 

The situation in figures

The collective of residents of Quatre boulevards puts forward some figures to explain their fed up with à traffic passing through their neighborhood. "Over the past 20 months, there have been more than 9,300,000 vehicles that have been damaged. counted and 600,000 cyclists, which makes a passage of more than 15,000 cars per day and 1,000 cyclists (compared to 200 cyclists on the dedicated lane on the avenue Albert-Dubout closed to car traffic). And 45 accidents that we have listed, so there are surely more", specifies Noémie, one of the demonstrators.

Besides, the message is repeated over and over again: "We are sorry but we don&#39 ;we can't do more", we hear chanting to the attention of those who find themselves stuck in traffic jams.

And curiously the demonstrators who cause a lot of inconvenience are supported by most motorists, even if some do not hesitate to send them a few names in passing. "Every morning, it's hellish. This axis is congested, there it's a little more", confides Mike who cannot get to work other than by car. Same story for Jean-François, also stuck in his car: “Really it's becoming hellish in every corner, today it's even worse , but at the same time we can understand them."

What solutions ?

Today, the collective assures that the town hall refuses to receive them in order to find a solution to their problem. "This traffic project is completely aberrant", declares Alain Makinson. And to specify: "It would be enough to make the boulevard here one-way and reopen one direction on Avenue Albert-Dubout in order to distribute and share the pollution.& quot;

“We will have proposals”, assures the mayor, Michaël Delafosse

On the side from the town hall we clarify the situation by the fact that "the circulation is in the process of mutating, there is a paradigm shift, that' is a long time.

The mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, him, assures that "Julie Fr&ecirc ;che they will receive within a few months, as had been the case for them. said à the public meeting. It is not by blocking traffic that we solve the problems. But we work, we work. We are going forward. And we will have proposals."

A time apparently too long for many Monpelliérains… waiting for the situation to change concretely and for an improvement to take shape.

Residents are especially worried about the future: "After the closure of avenue Albert-Dubout and rue Frédéric- Fabrèges and soon the south side at the Comédie level everything comes to us."

"It's a sacrificed neighborhood. The method is not ethical, with problems that are not neutral at the level of the environment, health, safety and even at the social level with the closure of… ;shops. It's just unbearable."