to become too vainly ambitious, not to believe that automated transport addresses all problems and ques- tions. Realism must preside and a real service must be brought to cus- tomers. Secondly that the inhabitants of La Rochelle Urban Community are committed to innovation in transport and they are especially enthusiastic about our ”city as a living lab” status! Lastly
I would
For years La Rochelle has been a city turned towards innovation and experimentation, our credo being innovative
and electric powered
La Rochelle benefits from a generous choice of public transit options and modes
vehicles. Therefore, the CityMobil2 project offered a step further, build- ing on the earlier demonstrations conducted in 2008 and 2011. Through CityMobil2 we wanted to test the reaction of La Rochelle’s inhabitants towards the potential of introduc- ing these vehicles in our local urban transport mix.
in the integration of automation in urban mobility. Mr. Jean-François Fountaine, Mayor of La Rochelle and President of the Urban Community (Communauté
d’Agglomération), speaks to Thinking Cities.
M Fountaine, could you please tell us why your city decided to take part in the CityMobil2 project? What were your main expectations from the project’s onsite demonstrations?
Could you highlight some lessons that you learned from your involve- ment in the CityMobil2 project? Firstly that in such demonstrations, ambitious by nature, you have to keep your feet on the ground, not
What were the main obstacles that you had to overcome? I wouldn’t say we encountered barri- ers but rather some reluctance and difficulties to overcome. In the first place the lack of legislation on auto- mation did not facilitate the startup of our demonstration. But in the end, the continuous dialogue we set up with the Ministries has been very use- ful to our demonstration and beyond; the subsequent demonstrations in France have benefitted. We made a choice, not the easiest one, to conduct this experimentation in the centre of the city, in an open environment, which necessarily implies sharing the road with other users such as cyclists and pedestrians. We also found some “ideological
barriers” of the type “Automation equals job loss”. say that social
acceptance of automation is under- way and there is a real need and place for this type of transportation, judging by the proliferation of auto- mated vehicles experiments since we made our first test.
The city of La Rochelle has recently integrated ARTS (Automated Road Transport System) into its SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan)? How do you see the role of automa- tion in the city’s long term sustain- able mobility plans? Our public transport network is being redesigned and will be implemented from September 2017. We already imagine that some automated road transport system will complement the more conventional transport ser- vices (for the “first”/”last” mile) possi- bly in the heart of some activity parks (I’m thinking notably about Atlantech Low Carbon Park) but also in the city centre itself, to support the actions we took to prevent the Old Harbour from becoming overun with car traffic.
Automated transport systems play an important role in the urban transport mix particularly in com- plementing the traditional trans- port services (the so-called ‘last mile’ or ‘first-mile’). Where exactly in the city do you think ARTS can make a true difference - university campuses, tourist areas, etc.? A prerequisite for this is an evolution of the legislation and an improve- ment of the technology to fully meet our needs. Safety is crucial: it was our number one priority for the past
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CItyview
LA ROCHELLE
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