Pedestrians, cars, bicycles… Big changes are announced in the city

Giving a “new face to the city”, making it “easier to access”. An “enlarged, peaceful and breathing city”, where “pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and motorists” would circulate better, in “separate and secure flows”, with spaces returned to all inhabitants. This “city to live in” is one of the very first priority files of the Strasbourg executive for this mandate, assured during a press conference on Friday the mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian. Also, a calendar for all the projects has been defined and a wave of consultations with the inhabitants has been launched. Meetings to see possibly in detail certain stumbling blocks, without being a question either of “returning to the main lines of the program on which she was elected” underlines the environmentalist mayor. These consultations will take place throughout the coming months.

On the observation that the “current system” of mobility “has reached saturation”, the city wishes to tackle certain “black spots, places of tension, tension, in particular in the city center where uses are concentrated. extremely diverse that intersect. Particular attention will be paid to Avenue des Vosges and the Les Halles sector, including Boulevard Sébastopol, with a reorganization of uses and revegetation work. Works which should extend from the summer of 2024 to the end of 2025 for Les Halles.

Parking reform

If it is a divisive subject, on-street parking remains a key piece on the chessboard of the redistribution of public space. A delicate and “complex” question, recognizes the mayor, aware that residents “need their car and must therefore be able to park”, as do businesses or professionals who work in the city. But if possible, not on-road underlies the executive. “We need spaces, playgrounds for children, to calm the city, wider sidewalks, explains the environmentalist mayor. We need to free public space from cars. »

On the program therefore, a serious reduction in parking spaces on the roadway to make way for cycle paths, separated from pedestrians and thus reduce conflicts. “It is no longer possible to see motorists driving in circles in the city center in search of a place when even there is none” outbids Pierre Ozenne, deputy in charge of public space policy. Also in the cards, a future increase in the on-street parking package for residents, enough to encourage parking in the car parks under construction. And as in three sectors of Strasbourg, there are none or few, to “free up the road, the construction of three car parks in the works is planned. These are the districts of Neustadt, Neudorf and Montagne Verte,” announces Pierre Ozenne. Several consultations, forums and workshops on the new parking policy, but also for the inhabitants of the three districts who should see a multi-storey car park flourish, begin at the end of June and will last until the summer of 2023.

A modular ring

It is a kind of ring road that bypasses the city for 4 km via the interior quays of the Big Island. A project commonly called up to now “bicycle highway”, it officially becomes “the modular ring” and will promote all soft transport. It will include a pedestrian route, “la Magistrale Pedestrian” well identified and separated from cycle lanes. Objective, to widen the pedestrian city center, to facilitate bicycle transit by bypassing the pedestrian zones of the hypercentre and therefore to reduce conflicts with pedestrians, while being connected to existing cycle paths. Bike racks will encourage cyclists to leave their bikes to finish walking around the city. Bus traffic, like motorists, will be sent back in December 2023, the date of delivery of the ring, to the outer platforms only.

Public transport support

To keep the city accessible while limiting car use, the city and the Eurometropolis are counting on the extension to the south of the high service level bus line G and its 12 new stations. Its commissioning is scheduled for December 2023 for a budget of 14.7 million euros, including 4.5 million euros devoted to the purchase of ten new buses. Another important project, the extension of the northern tram this time, towards Schiltigheim and Bischheim. This tram will pass by the avenue des Vosges and the place de Haguenau. With its ten new stations, it should encourage the use of trains in Eurometropolis stations by avoiding crossing the city centre. After additional public consultation, work should begin in the summer of 2024.