Swiss citizens are asked to vote on November 24 on a credit of nearly five billion francs for the extension of six motorways, including the widening of the A1 between Nyon and Vengeron. The Federal Roads Office (OFROU) has already indicated that such a section would bring 44,000 additional cars per day to Geneva territory.
This project will also lead to the disappearance of agricultural and forest areas, essential to biodiversity. The impact in terms of public health would also be significant: in addition to the noise from which nearly a million people already suffer in Switzerland, the new roads cause more air pollution, allergies, stress, and cardiovascular diseases.
The repercussions if accepted would be particularly strong in a city as dense as Geneva, where mobility is already largely hampered by transit automobile traffic. While the Canton aims to reduce car travel by 40% by 2030 and the Municipal Climate Strategy aims to reduce parking spaces in public spaces, such an influx of vehicles would make these objectives unattainable.
Increase in CO2 emissions
The Federal Council also admits that the implementation of these motorway projects by 2040 would increase CO2 emissions, thus contradicting its own objectives of reducing emissions by 100% linked to the transport sector by 2040.
The Administrative Council therefore calls for this object to be refused and invites the Confederation to invest in sustainable mobility projects, renouncing the saving measures of several hundred million planned in this area.
This call is consistent with the fight initiated by the City of Geneva for several years against the Chablais motorway project (A412) linking Thonon to Machilly, alongside the farming world and associative circles. Note that a similar project has just been abandoned on the outskirts of Paris and that all over the world, motorway projects are the subject of bitter struggles and refusals from populations.
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