Toulouse without a car, Victor Hugo vegetated … He publishes a futuristic scenario that will make people react
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
“Since 2032, the city of Toulouse has banned cars from its streets. In less than a decade, this municipality of more than half a million inhabitants has been transformed”. No, this is not an article written by Marty McFly after a trip to the future in a DeLorean. This is the starting point of a somewhat special publication edited by the perspective studio, group specializing in conception-fiction.
The practice of design fiction
“We build perspectives that project the reader out of the present, into a story that engages them emotionally. The ambition is to stimulate innovation, to propose new imaginaries, to bring a new point of view on the subjects, whether they are environmental, societal, cultural, political, scientific or technological, we could provide a better understanding of contemporaries and the future in order to promote debate around various topics of society “the future”.
“Break with distrust in the face of change”
Behind this project hides Toulouse’s Alexandre Luzarreta, resident of the Pink City and holder of a Master’s degree in design innovation for architecture. “Design fiction intends to break with mistrust and disbelief in the face of change. The objective is to get out of the controversies of the moment and the lack of movement. Design fiction is a relevant tool for debating”, explains the young man a Toulouse news.
Toulouse, “a city that has banned the car”
Far from Gorafi, Perspecteurs pushes the futuristic plug very far but always by espousing the trends of the future in France. Ecology is part of it and the Toulousain has looked, via the format of an article and an interview, on the evolution of the place of the car in the city in the Pink City. Its title is catchy and upsets required: “June 10, 2041: Toulouse, a city that has banned the car”.
The interview with Iris, a fictional mayor
The story is imbued with “I” with a virtual meeting in the company ofIris Turms, “mayor since 2026. She and her team are behind the transformation of the city”, writes the contributor to Perspecteurs. He simulated the interview of this fictional elected official to project a hyper futuristic and ecological vision of the Pink City. And the result of this reflection and of these “plausible futures” is striking.
Maps for cycling and walking times
In 2041, Toulouse is full of maps of the city that show travel times by bike and on foot. Soft modes which, from 2032, have become the norm in the 4e City of France. Iris Turms explains her vision and ideology in this parallel universes interview:
“We have not banned the car from the streets of the city, we have only restricted its use to the strict necessity. The gasoline and diesel-powered car is one of the first causes of air pollution in The private car also takes up a lot of space in the city – for less than an hour of use per day, it occupies 12 m² of floor space 23/24 hours. We need this surface to facilitate the circulation of bicycles, buses and trams, but also to plant trees and bring biodiversity as well as freshness during the scorching summers that we are increasingly experiencing. , we wanted to give back the space to the inhabitants. of the space taken up by the car, we have, among other things, reduced the number of public parking spaces by four in the space of 15 years. e, the equivalent of almost 100 football fields!”.
Furthermore, small arteries in the city center have been closed to car traffic to turn them into pedestrian streets. “Cars are only allowed there for exceptional situations: emergency access, moving, access for people with reduced mobility…”, continues this futuristic Toulouse mayor.
The use of the regulated car
In 2032, car use is strictly regulated.
“The car has been banned for journeys that can be made in less than 30 minutes (45 minutes for the community of municipalities of Greater Toulouse) by public transport (and with a maximum of two changes) (10) or in less than 15 minutes on foot or by bike. Of course, this restriction does not apply for people with medical problems, professionals as well as large families or during an exceptional situation such as a move”.
Videoverbalization at the service of ecology
Requests for derogation are possible, but the municipality of Toulouse is gradually tightening the noose by planning, in 2034, a control system. To make an urban trip, you have to go to the application created by the City or to the website. You must register your license plate and indicate the reasons for using the car. The city has many cameras capable of reading license plates and spotting fraud. In short, videoverbalization lborn by former mayor LR Jean-Luc Moudenc in 2016 sees its prerogatives widened in the field of ecology.
The change in philosophy is materialized by the transformation of the Faubourg Bonnefoy. In 2040, the penetrating drastically narrowed the place of the car by paying for wider sidewalks on both sides, by merging the single lane for buses and cars, and into two dedicated central lanes for bicycles.
In the communication, the package is put on raising awareness of public transport, bus journeys rather than solo driving. Abundant initiatives such as the multiplication of car-free days and days of free public transport.
Call for projects “Rethinking urban space”
From 2028, ecology is at the center of everything with the launch, by the Capitol, of the call for projects “Rethinking urban space”, with contributions to be submitted on the changeonstoulouse.fr website.
Among the proposals, the future joins the present, in particular on “street libraries” (are the current boxes to be read in fact only beginnings?) and ” of the vending machines for bread/pastries”, who is starting to try, especially at Saint-Agne station. Another concept mentioned in 2041 but which we were already beginning to see in 2020: access to daily services in less than a quarter of an hour on foot from home.
Arnaud-Bernard endives, vegetalized Victor Hugo…
Certain places or emblematic districts of the city are also transformed in a few years. The uses of underground car parks and silos, accused of giving too many places to thermal vehicles, have been redesigned. Below by Arnaud Bernard, for example, mushrooms and endives are grown there ! The Victor Hugo car park, has become a third place dedicated to the arts of all kinds, and the eponymous square has been completely planted to make the walk pleasant and to protect against heat waves. “The layout could make it possible to take advantage, for example, of its superb view. But this car park at this location is sad, ”said Alexandre Luzarreta.
Virtual meetings
Finally, the virtual report of Perspecteurs leads the studio to question Toulouse residents (also virtual, even if the goal of the publication is to identify at least one of them) on this radical evolution of the city. We meet Sophie, 78, with her electric tricycle, Akio, who sees the difference since the restrictions on the place of the car, Pierre, happy with the widening of the sidewalks and Naël, a retiree who believes that the quality of the air has improved and there is a marked decrease in the sound of horns.
A political publication?
Are the lens of the publication and the topics chosen politically directed?
“Politics is required, but that is neither the objective nor the subject. I rely on my sensitivity to provoke debate, but I am not here to say what is good or not”.
Does this perspective scenario, “in the form of dissensus”, appeal to you? Fear ? Is it realistic or utopian? Desirable or not? It’s up to you to judge.
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