Cergy-Pontoise Urban Project Management Workshops August – September 2008 Taking a fresh look at major infrastructure elements in urban environments: crossing Cergy-Pontoise Preparatory document Forum d’initiatives urbaines - Le Verger - rue de la Gare – BP 90047 - 95020 CERGY-PONTOISE Cedex - France Tel : 33.(0)1.34.41.93.91 Fax : 33.(0)1.34.41.93.92
[email protected] Cergy-Pontoise Urban Project Management Workshops August – September 2008 Introduction The motorway in doubt Taking a fresh look at major infrastructure elements in urban environments Michel Jaouën, Urban Planner Architect, session manager Elements of the major transport infrastructure built since the 1960s are Are there any places that could be more alien from each other than the There is every reason why the motorway and the town should not get along now being rejected by urban residential districts. motorway and the city? and yet most of the time there are also good reasons why they should be What were once their original qualities of «speed, fluidity and efficiency» side by side. have become synonymous with «divided cities, pollution and noise nui- The motorway conjures up an image of the traffic network of an extended sance» as well as with «traffic saturation, space consumption and urban territory, wide open spaces, long distances and the connection between In Cergy-Pontoise it is not very clear whether the motorway skirts round sprawl». distant regions. It has its own imaginative world and places designed and the town or crosses it. It was not designed to be «urban» but, because of The entire notion of travel is under review across Europe.