Traffic in Montpellier: the opposition of economic players is getting organized… and making proposals

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By calling on the Ile-de-France research firm Accs (for Traffic planning and parking advice), which notably counts Toulouse Métropole or the city of Antibes among its clients, the association Vivre Montpellier Métropole and its president Michel Badie have given the means for their objectives: to be a source of proposals, and even of opposition to the policy of the Métropole de Montpellier, in terms of traffic and more broadly in the economic field of the future of the city centre.

The solutions proposed by the City are aberrant

he results of these studies, Michel Badie presented them this Monday evening, at the Panacée, to its members and well beyond. “The solutions proposed by the City are aberrant”, he commented, challenging the official counts. According to the Métropole, the Comédie tunnel is used every day by 6,000 cars, of which 5 to 10% go to the Comédie car park. i.e. transit traffic of 85% to 90%.

Only transit traffic impacted by decisions? Not sure

For Yann Lucas, Accs study director, the tunnel is used by 9,000 vehicles daily. At peak times (7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.), 500 vehicles per hour make up the local service (70%) and 200 vehicles per hour make up the famous “transit traffic” (30% ) that the Métropole wants to remove. “You have to remember that the 70% are people who either come from the surrounding neighborhoods or car parks or go there. In any case, we don’t find them at the exit of the city.”

The Comédie tunnel and the two-way Loubat viaduct?

Did you follow? What the Vivre Montpellier Métropole association is trying to prove with these figures is that Montpellier residents could be directly impacted by the sharp decisions taken by the municipality. And more broadly, downtown merchants would be harmed by the temptation for customers to stay or head to the outskirts. So what do the design office and Michel Badie recommend? There are nine proposals, and not the least, such as creating a two-way urban boulevard from east to west of the city via the avenues of Liberty… and Albert-Dubout (which they would therefore like to reopen); also reopen the streets Pellicier and Auguste-Comte to access Gambetta but also maintain the Comédie tunnel and even put it in two directions on its northern part to access the “Comédie and Polygone” car parks. And also double the Loubat viaduct to put it in both directions and facilitate access from the road to Nîmes.

“The car is forgotten”

“We sought the balance of mobilityconcludes Michel Badie and Yann Lucas. In what is proposed today, the car is forgotten, but it is necessary to perpetuate the service of the city center and the districts by cars. Not sure that these recommendations arouse the interest of decision-makers.