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Even Libération criticizes Paris Mayor Delanoë's traffic management

Transportation

Denis_baupin_wants_us_all_to_take_the_bu_1 In Paris, the risky about-face of Denis Baupin [aka Monsieur Embouteillages, Mr Traffic Jam-- who wants us all to take the bus, but himself has a private taxi subscription paid for by the city. By the way, taxis can take the bus lanes, so he has the best of both worlds. Of course, he's important! not just a mère de famille trying to do bulky family errands around town. (Have you ever noticed how rarely you see men carrying anything, compared to women?)]

In the face of criticism, the Transportation deputy has been forced to revisit his projects.

By Sibylle Vincendon
Libération, Sat 16 Dec 06

It is possible that the day of glory will arrive [quotation from national anthem La Marseillaise] for Denis Baupin, [Paris Mayor] Bertrand Delanoë's environmentalist deputy for transports. He must wish it, because times have been hard these past few months: seen at the beginning as courageous, the creation of wide lanes reserved for public transportation gradually was seen as not necessarily improving the frequency of buses. Marginal on pollution. And perhaps just a tad discriminatory toward drivers from the suburbs. Annoying when one is on the left, and even more so because the right believes that it sees a crack where it can slip in a wedge. A success for the tramway would come at just the right time to erase the mounting wave of criticism.

The arrival of the tramway has been promised for eons by the Boulevard_jeanjaures_1_3 environmental deputy as the end of the troubles. The hell of the construction is past. From now on, the trip from Ivry to Garigliano will take 24 minutes instead of 32. There a still a few Tram_by_fred_de_mai unknowns: no one knows how successful the management of the intersections with the Porte d'Orléans and the Porte d'Italie, major passageways into Paris, will be. The example of tramways in the provinces, confronted with far less traffic, does not tell us. In Paris, the least new measure (one-way streets, suppression of a lane) has a cascade of repercussions. And up till now, the prediction of these "systemic effects" has not been the strong point of Baupin's teams.

The leftist municipality has thus been surprised by the explosionCrop_moto_parking_by_kianoush_at_flickr in the number of two-wheeled vehicles (motorcycles and mopeds), which no one foresaw. The question of transport of goods was not seriously considered until last year. Nothing has been organized for the parking of workers coming in from the suburbs (in construction) or for health professionals. Major evolutions like e-commerce and its development of small deliveries, or the aging of the population with help to live at home, are not being faced. Of these, one is crucial: it is not the city of Paris that decides how many buses and taxis circulate in the enlarged special lanes. For the buses, it is the Syndicat des transports d'Ile-de-France (Stif) [isn't that perfect! They Stif us!], presided over by the region Taxis_at_the_airport_1 Ile-de-France [Paris's region] since this year but in which the city's vote weighs only 30%. And certainly not 30%  of the needs. More_taxis_at_the_airport_1 On the taxi side, things are worse: the police prefecture, in other words the national government, runs everything. Or rather nothing, since the calamitous situation of  taxi availability has not budged an iota. [Photos: Hundreds and hundreds of taxis in line at the airport, waiting for hours rather than return to Paris. Here's why.]

"Pressure." This lack of power has politically risky effects, at a time when some arrondissements barely voted on the left. How to explain to a driver going at a snail's pace that he sees only three Paris_traffic_jam_by_anthony7_at_flickr_1 buses in 30 minutes in the bus lane next to him? How to calm the people on a major road in east Paris that has been made into a one-way street? For a long time, Denis Baupin professed that it was necessary to "put the system under pressure," an expression that the mayor's cabinet uses to explain the doctrine of first reducing the room for cars, and afterwards augment the alternative offer of public transportation. This dogma is no longer in style. In September, during the Marcoussis seminar which reunited the elected representatives of the municipal majority, the principle was reversed: no more changes in the roads without an alternative transportation offer. The closing of the roads along the river or the pedestrian zone in the center of Paris are put off till later. To keep Paris is well worth a delicate touch. [This refers to King Henri IV, who converted to Catholicism to inherit the throne, saying, "Paris is well worth a Mass."]

December 16, 2006 in Paris | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some French forum posts on the CPE

From a forum on the Nouvel Observateur's website

freddyns - Aix en Provence - 16.03.06 23:28
France: backward country...
    I watch the debate on France 2 and I feel as if I'm hallucinating over politicians' lack of a grounding in the real world.
    We have four years of unemployment compensation, according to Mme Aubry....I'd like to have my four years!
    They talk about the professionally unemployed, I'd like to be one, but at 400 euros a month, where's the professional part?
    Does a politician know what you can do with 400 euros?
    If for some reason a manager finds himself unemployed, his chances of getting another job at 49 are very slim.
    After the age of 36 in France, you're too old!
    What do you do? Kill yourself? Leave France? Wait for pre-retirement?
    At 49, I consider myself excluded from society.

teudrick - Pau - 07.02.06 15:09
    I heard the MEDEF [the employers' group] on the radio this morning and I can't resist throwing out a little note onto the web.
    The ANPE [French government unemployment office] has become a temp agency. We have entered the era of cyclical employment. It looks as if we will have to get used to a perpetual cycle of employment and unemployment for the greater glory of more and more arrogant bosses who are only concerned with "cutting costs" (translation: "profit").
    ANPE: a reservoir of cheap labor, of always-available human merchandise, which should, according to the MEDEF, think it's lucky to be convoked from time to time for a discount job.
    Government: prison guards in the service of the big bosses (the prisoners, that's us). Thanks Villepin, thanks MEDEF. How fun life is with you.

citoyenelecteur - bordeaux - 17.03.06 12:37
    How many false debates generated by these politicians completely disconnected from democracy and from our country. The CPE is the latest example!
    All employees suffer from a recurring sickness: unemployment.
    What is the answer? Creation of a CNE and a CPE.
    One more toxic smokescreen!
    Who are these reforms destined for? Simply the lobby of  big bosses (who claim a number for their side that is much higher than reality!)
    And even they are acting fussy because they're still stuffed from their previous gifts.
    A company recruits when the economy is growing, when the demand for consumable goods grows...
    But no! Above all nothing will be done to create the conditions for economic development (the good joke is to hide behind the difficulties of globalization!)
    We can't reduce the government's way of life!
    We aren't going to make banks become economically active by giving loans to entrepreneurs.
    We aren't going to give new loans to allow people to buy property.
    It's so much easier to get rich sleeping, by firing people, and they have too much money, the banks buy real estate in key economic areas to the detriment of real entrepreneurs and small businessmen!
    We don't tax insurance companies that do the opposite of what they promise in ads on the public disinformation channels!
    We don't tax the oil companies that pollute our beaches and our environment! (but which give us a very highly taxed gasoline!)
    No, it's much better to go after welfare cheats....
    It's much better to create a CPE that will not make anyone hire more people (that is supposed to be the goal, right?) because businesses aren't hiring.
    It's much better to replace the old CDI [permanent employment contracts] with CNE and CPE, and make things worse for the employees who are already suffering.
    Shamelessly, afterwards we declare that the CNE is a success even though no new jobs have been created, even though the number of CNE created is equal to the number of CDIs lost.
    I see around me young people covered with diplomas who begin their professional life with CDDs [short-term employment contracts] in large French companies before getting to a normal CDI.
    Well, in the future, they'll begin their professional life with a CDD and then a CPE. The great innovation!
    ...During this time, our children are in the street confronted with groups of vandals...and the riot police (who get some stones thrown at them-- but that's their job, right? and they are so well paid)
    France is weighed down with lead, families are in unbearable stress (but prices have scarcely gone up, right?), our young entrepreneurs go abroad (where there is growth), and we still have at the Elysée Palace [where President Chirac lives] the same well-protected guardian behind his walls.
    Tomorrow we'll see!

......................

From Forums on the website of L'Express

Auteur : marco
Date d'envoi : 16/03/2006

Face to face with the hardliners for the CPE who are deaf to everything else, I try in vain to explain that employment will only come when we stop strangling businesses with so many taxes and forced contributions. Most intelligent countries have understood this. The essential thing for a boss is not to fire, but to hire. And to hire, you have to be able to have the means.

And to have the means, you can't be in a desperate struggle 365 days a year.

Go explain that to the politicians, not one of whom knows what it is to work, not one of whom understands business and its needs.

................
Auteur : Watt
Date d'envoi : 15/03/2006

At the same time, if we elect these guys, it's so they can do their job afterwards. If they have to ask everyone's advice all the time, they'd never do anything. Besides, this has been discussed for a long time...For once someone actually did something. Also, stop crying wolf before even having seen its tail.  The CPE hasn't even started to be applied and people are screaming about a scandal. Have you tried it so that you know? Also, all the people who aren't smashing windows and stopping students from working, maybe that's because they're ready to try it. It's not just a handful of people (there are 60 million people in France, do the math about the demonstrators) who are going to decide for the majority, especially since they haven't been elected with universal suffrage! Do something productive instead.
............................

Auteur : cathaline
Date d'envoi : 16/03/2006

    And the 35-hour week, what a marvel! Did that create any jobs? Well I don't know about them!
    Give it a chance for heaven's sake!
...............................

Auteur : rodrigue
Date d'envoi : 16/03/2006


    For sure, France is a country of charity cases [assistés], 35 hours of work a week, the shame! and to see it encouraged by the left looking for voters, young people are naive to fall into the trap, perhaps they imagine that at the end of their studies they'll find the job and salary they hope for, dream on! there is less and less work, and it's not getting better, the bosses are packing their suitcases, and there's a reason for that!
...............................................

Auteur : 5291
Date d'envoi : 15/03/2006

To all young people.
No CPE, then what, you think "work" is going to come looking for you? Why not enter the world of work right away, which will allow you to make useful professional acquaintances and take your place quickly?
...................................

March 18, 2006 in Paris | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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