A new part of Nancy city center will be converted into a pedestrian area from mid-September. The city council validated, on Monday, the pedestrianization of several arteries between rue Saint-Nicolas (at the corner with rue du Dr. Schmitt) and Porte de la Craffe. A project carried by the socialist mayor Mathieu Klein and his team since his election in 2020. The elected official salutes “an important step” in the transformation of the city for him “to restore the charm and radiance that is its own”17 years after the pedestrianization of Place Stanislas.
A pedestrian area of more than one kilometer
This new pedestrian area, similar to the footpath already tested during the summer of 2021, is divided into three perimeters:
- Gambetta (from rue Saint-Dizier), rue des Dominicains and rue du Pont-Mouja
- “Little” Grande Rue, Gustave Simon (from rue Saint-Dizier), rue Callot, place Vaudémont, rue du Maure qui Trompe, rue Pierre Gringoire, and rue du Moulin
- “Grande” Grande Rue, rue Saint-Michel lower part, rue des Etats, rue de Guise, rue du Petit Bourgeois and part of the rue des Loups.
– Nancy City Hall
In the streets colored in orange on the map above, there will be no more parking spaces. In all, 122 places will be deleted. Motorists strolling through the town center should use the on-site car parks or surface spaces around the pedestrian area. Some will be dedicated solely to “very short-term parking”. The car will not be able to stay longer than 30 minutes, but it will be free. In the Porte Désilles car park, parking will be limited to 3h15. This place will be more for people wishing to make several purchases or take longer walks.
Through traffic will be prohibited in pedestrian air. On the other hand, residents and local traders will be able to lower the bollards which will block the streets thanks to a license plate recognition system or with a remote control. A 24-hour intercom will allow you to request an exemption, for example, to drop off a person with reduced mobility or load furniture into their vehicle. “I’m just waiting to see Christmas week when there will be 200 cars waiting at the terminal to go and charge at all the local merchants”, quips Richard Engel, owner of a furniture store on rue Saint-Nicolas and member of the Greater Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle Chamber of Commerce and Industry. For him, as for many other traders, setting up the pedestrian area is “too hasty”.
A project of several months
The pedestrian area will be officially inaugurated in mid-September, as some work must first be done: change the panels and install the terminals. The landscaping and revegetation will come later. The direction of traffic will be changed in rue des Petits-Bourgeois, rue des Loups, rue de Guise and part of rue Monseigneur Trouillet.
While waiting for total pedestrianization in September, the City of Nancy is renewing its operation summer footpath to limit the number of vehicles in the city centre.