Carmageddon

Could you do without a car? No...we couldn't either. Cars have been a part of everybody's lives for many decades. And yet, when I look around, I see how they are ruining our environment. They choke our roads, our residential streets and our cities. As for parking...even in the sleepy town of Lodève I can drive round and around the large municipal car park and still fail to find a place. But some authorities would seem to be better than others in tackling this increasing problem. As already mentioned in past blogs, when visiting Montpellier, drivers are encouraged to park on the city perimeters and take a tram into the centre. Fares are minimal and the process is smooth. Moreover all tram fares on each of the five lines are free to Montpellier residents. You just have to experience these crowded trams to judge the enormous success of this scheme. In addition, the city of Montpellier has introduced a clean air zone in the city centre, and every motorist must obtain and display a 'Critair' sticker. From the beginning of this year, all diesel vehicles registered before 2011 ( Level 3) are banned.

Watch out ! . You are in an ULTRA LOW EMISSION ZONE!

Of course, all over France there is a car sharing scheme(Co-voiturage) which encourages people to leave their cars behind in specially provided car parks alongside busy roads. These have varied success. We rarely see more than four or five cars parked near Lodève, whereas the equivalent co-voiturage car park on the edge of Pézénas, is always chock full.

But not all towns and cities are tackling this growing problem. Soon we shall be spending more time in Sète , where the traffic seems endless. Being a large port , and occupying a large area of coastal land, there is no by-pass or ring road to avoid the town centre, and the roads are constantly choked. In the height of summer this gets even worse. Should one need to park in the busy town centre , it is virtually impossible to find a space. But it is clear that at least in Sète, something is being done to tackle this, as the area around Avenue Victor Hugo reveals. For as long as we can remember parking has been permitted along both sides of this historic boulevard . Moreover, beautiful sites such as the nearby Place Stalingrad, were fair game for motorists as these old Google Earth/Street-view photographs reveal.

But then , in November 2020, the diggers moved in.

Work proceeded over the course of the next year.

Barely one year later, in October 2021 an underground parking space for 313 cars was opened.

Before

After

Clearly moving cars underground is one way forward, in addition to providing more and cheaper public transport, and safe bicycle lanes. Here's hoping we see more schemes like this . Bravo Sète!