in Marseille, the free train against a dirty car
The Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis (AMP) voted in the metropolitan council, today January 19, 2023, its new low emission zone (ZFE) policy. The latter prevents, from September 2022, polluting cars from driving in the city centre. The metropolis, in collaboration with the Paca region, wants to reward the owners of a Crit’Air 5 or not in the car category, who want to take part in it.
“Once the car is sold, the owner will receive a free Full Pass for six months, it’s time to find another car”, explained Jean-Pierre Serrus, vice-president of the region in charge of transportation. The “Integral Pass”, created in 2018 by the region and the metropolis, costs €73 per month and provides access to the TER, public transport networks and some maritime services.
The first metropolis to favor a reward measure
With this proposal, the metropolis wants to achieve its two goals in the fight against climate change: a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The national low-carbon strategy (SNBC), set by Ministry of Ecological Transition, believes that it is necessary ” a 75% reduction in emissions by 2050 “.
Of the eleven ZFEs, Aix-Marseille was the first metropolis to favor a reward proposal. “Ecology does not win by being penalized” explained Martine Vassal, president of the metropolis. ” If they propose a non-binding proposal, one can only approve, Satisfied Yves Carra, spokesman of the Automobile club, which manages the rights of road users. We have always been against the establishment of EPZs for the exclusion of the most precarious from urban centers. Marseille has the merit of finding solutions”.
A more effective symbolic measure
The solution will not benefit all 1.9 million inhabitants of the metropolis, but only 18% of them. ” The proposal targets 314,000 residents, 172,000 workers and 42,000 students of the low emission zone. examines Jean-Marc Serrus. The ZFE represents only 8% of the surface area of Marseille and only 0.62% of metropolitan France. The conditions for access to the Integral Pass limit the scope of the proposal.
Moreover, the people who could potentially benefit are not all owners of a polluting vehicle. As the establishment of ZFEs approaches, prefectures take the opportunity to identify the motor vehicle fleet. “SOnly 4.1% of cars will not be able to go round the ZFE due to a bad sticker, with 1.4% Crit’Air 5 and 2.7% out of category”, indicates the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône. Nationwide, only 6% of vehicles are no longer able to circulate freely in cities.
“Marseille en Grand” to leave your car
” Six months seems like a very short time for me to change his car », Review by Yves Carra. According to a spokesperson for the Automobile club, a whole year of free public transport and trains will be needed to buy a car. “We want motorists to understand that they can go out, go to work and enjoy their leisure time without a car. nuance Jean-Pierre Serrus.
However, everywhere in France, anger is building against the incompetence of the TER and sometimes against their absence. ” We have no satisfaction with the train offer in the Aix-Marseille metropolis”, said Gilles Marcel, president of the collective “La Voix de Nosterpaca”. According to the latter, the train is a reliable alternative to cars if ” a train arrives at the station at least every 30 minutes “. Currently, within the metropolis, only the line connecting Marseille to Aix-en-Provence is reliable.
Modernization of its public transportation network
The metropolis then relies on the modernization of its public transportation network to convince residents to leave cars in the garage. The “Marseille en Grand” project, announced by Emmanuel Macron on September 2, 2021 and presented by the metropolis a year later, plans to multiply and modernize the transport offer there.
that’s it “complete offer” public transportation “from north to south”, in the words of Martine Vassal, will make it possible to achieve the goals of combating global warming. It will cost 2 billion euros, including 256 million euros in subsidies already paid by the state in 2022.
