This should not improve the way in which Parisians anticipate the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (OG). Two days after the publication of a survey by Odoxa (carried out for Winamax and RTL) which observes that the perception of the Olympic Games “reaches the alert rating” among Ile-de-France residents, the Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune, recognized, Tuesday, November 14, that road traffic would be “complicated” in Paris on the days of the competition – from July 26 to August 11, 2024.
“By the end of November, at the very beginning of December at the latest, the long-awaited traffic plans in Paris will be presented,” announced the minister, speaking as part of the first congress of the Group of Hotels and Restaurants of France (GHR), a few hours after the holding of “a meeting with all transport stakeholders and the Paris police prefect” on the subject. “I will not hide from you that these traffic plans (…) will be “hardcore””, Clément Beaune confided to the professionals, who are awaiting these plans, particularly regarding their deliveries.
“On competition days, it will be complicated to get around Paris,” he admitted, mentioning “exemptions, special rules for professionals,” and “a consultation phase until the start of the competition.” ‘next year “. This is the first time that the minister has mentioned the issue of traffic in this way, which has concerned Parisians since the designation of Paris as host city in 2017. In the survey published on Sunday by the Odoxa polling institute, the distrust of Ile-de-France residents regarding the Games, which now reaches 44% (compared to 22% two years ago), concerns above all the question of transport: 81% of Ile-de-France residents, and 66% of French people, place this subject at the top of their concerns, ahead of the Olympics.
“Make sure you have a little less unnecessary travel”
In total, some 185 kilometers of lanes reserved exclusively for athletes and accredited persons are planned for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “These lanes will have an impact on the rest of traffic,” recognized the mobility coordinator for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Florent Bardon, at the start of the year, during a webinar for freight professionals.
The Minister of Transport also announced “an information campaign (…) on anticipation of the Games, how to ensure that we have a little less unnecessary travel during the Games”, in order to “explain what happens during the Games: the plans, the exemptions, those who have the right to travel. Facing hotel professionals, Clément Beaune specified that “particular attention” would be paid “in exemptions, and in upstream communication”, for professionals “and all those who supply you”.