"EPZ: High annoyance zone, high exclusion areas, and there are worse... This Thursday morning, Philippe Tabarot spared his audience the worst words he could read. However, the Senator of Alpes-Maritimes, and member of the Planning and Development Committee, must have seen discontent, he who came to express a first feeling after the closure of the citizen consultation on the acceptability of Low Emission Zones (ZFE), and whose final report will be presented in mid-June.
Organized from April 17 to May 14 by the Senate, this consultation aimed to take the pulse of concerns and questions on this subject which concerns eleven cities and thirty agglomerations in France. "We can already bring out a lot of work elements thanks to exceptional participation. In total, 53,346 people completed the two questionnaires (one for individuals and one for professionals - Editor's note)," Philippe Tabarot told 20 Minutes.
86% of individuals opposed to EPZs
And the result is clear: a very large majority of respondents are opposed to the deployment of EPZs. 86% for individuals, 79% for professionals. A response that does not call into question the future application of EPZs according to Philippe Tabarot : "This is indeed a consultation on the principle of volunteering, so we take the result of this consultation with caution. Especially since this is a public health issue."
As proof, the Senator puts forward figures. Thus, 97% of respondents were aware of the issues of EPZs, compared to "one in two people in the population according to surveys" (highlighting the lack of communication from the government on the subject), and a quarter of them live in, or nearby, the metropolis of Greater Paris.
However, the commission took care to call on a "Data Scientist", an expert in data exploitation, to learn as much as possible. "We were able to analyze trends and correlations between the various responses."
A social time bomb
Overall, opposition to the deployment of EPZs focuses on the social consequences they could entail: "a real breach of equal access to the city centre", "pure social exclusion", "a feeling of injustice, when work is concentrated in metropolitan France but insufficiently remunerative to have access to the acquisition of housing in metropolitan France, but also to a clean vehicle."
As a result, senators have already identified four main obstacles. The first, cited by professionals and individuals alike, regardless of their socio-professional category, is the excessively high cost of clean vehicles. This is important since 97% of respondents own a motor vehicle, 42% of whom are listed as Crit'air 3, 4, 5 or outside and therefore already concerned, or very soon, by the driving bans imposed by the EPZs.
This is why Philippe Tabarot recalls that the Senate had encouraged the government to generalize the offer of zero-interest loans for all clean vehicles, a request refused at the time in the joint committee. It is therefore not impossible to review this request among the recommendations of the forthcoming report. "Especially since the composition of the Assembly has changed slightly," says the senator, a little teasing.
Insufficient public transport supply
But the zero-interest loan will probably not be enough to sufficiently alleviate the "rest to charge" for the most modest households. It is then up to manufacturers to make an effort on the cost of electric vehicles, according to Philippe Tabarot.
The cost of these vehicles is all the more problematic as the most modest are often those who also live furthest from city centers, areas where the network of public transport is not the most important. 83% of respondents to the consultation believe that alternatives to private vehicles are not sufficient. A figure that rises to 93% for people living in rural areas alone. "There is a real correlation between the degree of acceptability of EPZs and the place of residence," confirms Philippe Tabarot.
And if the majority of metropolises, like Greater Paris, are working on this subject, the senator recalls that "the time of transport is long" and that the development of the offer will still take time before leading to a massive modal shift. For this reason, 47% of individual respondents consider the implementation of EPZs "too fast". A remark that echoes the postponements of application observed in several metropolises.
Two imperatives: Control and harmonization
Different local authorities that will also have to harmonize. After meeting nearly one hundred and fifty elected officials from fifty agglomerations, Philippe Tabarot insists on the need to agree on the timetable and the various standards and derogations proposed that contribute to the misunderstanding of the subject. "It is through this synchronization that the acceptability of such a measure will pass."
Before finalizing its report, the Commission will still have to meet the Minister of the Interior to agree on the control modalities, "today almost non-existent" despite fines of 68 euros for individuals and 135 euros for professionals.
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