In Toulouse, the new Parc des Expositions is a car trap
The exit of the Meett silo car park, the new Parc-Expos set up in Aussonne, is regularly suffocated by traffic jams, at a time when exhibitors and visitors are trying to return home.
Yet it is an ultramodern building designed by a star of architecture, the Dutch Rem Koolhaas, which has just been inaugurated. But after a few weeks of operation, the Meett, the new Parc-Expos in the Toulouse metropolis, located in Aussonne, discovered an Achilles heel: the access or rather the exit of its silo car park with a capacity of 3,000 vehicles, which are turning into a bottleneck at a time when the various lounges housed in its vast infrastructures are closing their doors.
The big traffic jam
Thursday evening, a mega-traffic jam was created at the two automatic payment barriers supposed to regulate the flow of cars. “It was hell,” says a survivor of this plug, who thought she died in the vapors of the exhaust pipes. It took me a good half an hour to get out of there like all the people who were leaving at the same time ”… Circumstantial saturation or structural problem? For our castaway from the road, it is obvious that the design of this multi-storey car park, built above the exhibition hall, is undoubtedly not suitable.
“To get there, you have the same impression as when you get on a ferry with several traffic lanes that distribute the different levels. But where it gets stuck is that there are only two input and output terminals. When everyone leaves at the same time, it is suffocation ”. And again the famous silo car park is a priori reserved only for visitors, exhibitors, for their part, with 2,000 spaces on two outdoor esplanades. “What I do not understand,” she continues, “is that there is a charge for parking, whereas the Parc-Expos was built outside Toulouse on an immense site and that we are obliged to take car to get there when you do not live in an area served by public transport. And the last straw is that Thursday was the fair for job seekers who were out of their pocket. It is not very coherent ”…
Break down barriers?
So would Meet be a victim of its success? “We have to put things into perspective,” we explain on the side of the management. It is true that the problem has been identified when, on several concomitant and large-scale events, there may be a bottleneck. But it is not systematic. We are still in the grip of the site and we will welcome each other on the issue to provide solutions ”. And why not remove the barriers?