The Great Nothing of European Mobility Week
This page is translated from the original post "Le grand Rien de la Semaine européenne de la mobilité" in French.
- 22/09/2024 10:48
If you missed it, and it’s quite possible, the European Mobility Week ends tonight.
From September 16 to 22, the European Union organized its grand European Mobility Week. This event aims each year to encourage citizens and communities in many European countries to choose more sustainable modes of transportation.
This year, 2,594 cities in 45 countries participated in this event filled with good intentions. 58 in France registered, compared to 173 in Poland, 197 in Germany, 230 in Belgium, 372 in Austria, and 464 in Spain. It is already evident that some countries are more concerned than others about the issue of new mobilities… Don’t look for Paris, Grand Paris, Île-de-France, or Hauts-de-Seine in the list; you won’t find anything. Our Parisian elites have much better things to do than educate the public on the virtues of new mobilities. It’s more amusing to tax heavy vehicles, even electric ones, or to set up bike lanes against the direction of car traffic, even when we know that both cannot fit. We traverse the ring road at 50 km/h, there are lane closures, bans on lane splitting,… Similarly, you cannot imagine the energy it takes to pretend we don’t know that only 29 out of 303 Metro and RER stations are accessible to Persons with Reduced Mobility.
Public transportation, let’s talk about it, especially since Île-de-France Mobilités has widely communicated about the event throughout the week. There must be some PR agencies that are happy. Thus, IDFM invited all of us to question the impact of our mobility on our environment. And concretely? Nothing! No reduced fares to introduce public transport to the more reluctant, no late-night service expansions, no fewer delays,… Just nice words, no actions. For us poor Parisians, this week ends with a beautiful day “Paris Breathes” without cars… Like every month.
In short, a week for nothing. In this regard, it’s quite amusing to note that the Scandinavian countries, which are at the forefront of the transition to Zero Emissions mobility, hardly participate in this nice event. A testament to the regard they hold for it. Or when actions speak louder than words.
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