The plan is simple in its design: put an end to the current situation that makes the Promenade des Anglais an urban highway (with three lanes in each direction), used by heavy goods vehicles for transit and deliveries.
To achieve this, the Mayor of Nice is asking the Ministry of Transport for two changes to the existing regulations: to downgrade the Promenade des Anglais on one hand*, and on the other hand to classify the A8 motorway as a “major road”.
“This new route would have the advantage of forcing vehicles that transit without making deliveries to avoid tolls and circumvent the metropolitan area,” is the motivation for the municipal services.
The basis for this intervention by the Mayor of Nice is the formalization of the favorable opinion of the Committee of French Goods of World Heritage and the confirmation of the “universal value of the presented property” related to the application file for the classification of the Promenade des Anglais as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Christian Estrosi has also sought the support of the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes to soon issue a municipal decree limiting the circulation of heavy vehicles to deliveries made on the Promenade, with strict delivery hours from 4:00 am to 7:30 am. Beware to the late risers!
The loop would be closed if the Mayor of Nice did not omit the problem of double parking, a source of slowdowns and blockages. In this case, he should not appeal to the ministry or the prefecture to make probably unpopular decisions (which is always better) but to take his own responsibilities and severely punish offending motorists (which is never good in electoral terms).
In the end, we can only applaud these “ecological” measures (how can we not see that the Prom’ is often transformed into a rodeo by drivers who believe they are on an F1 circuit and we breathe in the exhaust fumes full lungs) even if there will be a need to await the reactions of the powerful national and foreign transporter lobby that likes to have their say in traffic matters.
As a reminder, the attempt by President Hollande’s government to involve the category for the use of national roads created the “red caps” revolt before a not-so-glorious backtrack by the ministerial authorities.
As for the murky project announced by Christian Estrosi of the motorways of the sea, which should have eased traffic on the Italy-France-Spain axis, it remained an announcement effect during a press conference before the file ended up in the drafts.
This time, will it be the right one? “The Times They Are a-Changin’” is the title of a hit song from the ’60s by Bob Dylan (incidentally, Nobel Prize in Literature 2016). Let’s hope it is true also in this circumstance because transporters, preferring the minstrel’s beautiful lyricism, notoriously favor boorishness to safeguard their more prosaic interests…
