Mobility: the transport puzzle in the Annecy basin
Greater Annecy has just launched its Mobil’été scheme. But the agglomeration still has work to do to overcome its travel challenges.
Free access to the bus network until August 31, 280 electrically assisted bicycles available in 48 stations, 14 additional free relay parking lots…: the Mobil’été system, presented by elected officials a few days ago, is intended to be a “strong measure to appease the territory of Greater Annecy. The agglomeration’s strategy favors a combination of transport modes: private car, public transport (PT), walking, cycling, boating, carpooling (which could also be partly “reimbursed” by the community, as in the French Geneva)… The principle being to consider that it is counterproductive to oppose the modes between them and illusory to imagine completely driving out the cars of the cities.
Because, in a geographically constrained territory and which is getting dressed in a sustainable way with new inhabitants (which has generated displacements, etc.), trying to appease mobility is, even more than elsewhere, a challenge. Public transport level illustration. The bus network (Sibra) cannot serve all the municipalities of Greater Annecy – and even less every ten minutes – for lack of sufficient means. Its commercial revenue represents only a third of the budget necessary for its operation, the rest being financed by the “agglo” (annual allocation) and by companies, via the “mobility payment” (VM).
In short: increasing the number of buses can only be done by increasing corporate taxation…a subject that has already reflected a lively debate in 2018. In addition, even if Sibra has the necessary funds, a transport network in common is effective only if it conquers a minimum number of users. Challenge also at the level of the cars. It is technically possible to limit their access to the city center – which is already the case – but the problem here is that the bypasses are made more complex by the presence of the lake and the mountains. .
Parking for others?
Another component of the equation: easing mobility also requires relevant park and ride facilities. Or, ceding land to users who are not its inhabitants is not always well accepted by a municipality. Didn’t it take the creation of the new municipality of Annecy (merger of six municipalities, in 2017) for certain barriers to fall in the very heart of the “agglo”? Finally, wanting to act on the scale of the living area can come up against the administrative division and the distribution of competences between different actors.
Thus in 2021, the community of municipalities of Sources du lac d’Annecy (which covers the southern tip of the lake) decided to leave the “transport” competence on its territory to the Region. Result: “We no longer have control over our destiny”, deplores for example Hervé Bourne, mayor of Lathuile, who fears the isolation of the end of the lake and the decline in its attractiveness. In the absence of a single transport offer, it will therefore be necessary to focus on optimal coordination between the two players…
Every morning, Énora, a shopkeeper in Annecy, comes by car to the Marquisats car park from the heights of Saint-Jorioz (commune on the west shore of the lake) then walks to the town centre. This summer, the parking lot has become an annoyance. Take the bus ? “If it’s to find yourself in the middle of the cars…”, she blurts out. Eventually, this west bank should benefit from public transport on its own full site… provided that it is technically feasible and that the necessary expropriations do not lead the project down a dead end.
The center of Annecy could accommodate a tramway: a project costing more than €730 million for which studies are in progress and which must be voted on in a year. In the meantime, Mobil’été or not, in Greater Annecy, mobility will remain a major headache.
Cecile Boujet by Francesco