The Angers streetcar makes the streets without cars

While the streetcar made one's way through Angers city for the first time on december 22nd and attracted the looks of inhabitants, another phenomena is becoming standard : the desappearance of cars in downtown. With the implementation of a new mode of transport like the streetcar, the city of Angers clearly intends to slow down the automobile traffic through the urban area and even, in its core, to prohibit it. The Ralliement square is now at the center of ways cars can't use.

It's impossible to predict if such a choice will be advantageous or damaging for the economic function of downtown, but it's clear the way the Angers inhabitants - as well as the shop owners - will use it is just about to change. For the storekeepers the change is yet highly visible, especially for restaurants and bars which are now able to enlarge (not for free) their commercial surfaces. The customers could use downtown as a new open air commercial gallery without fearing to be knocked down by cars, buses or bikes (?) and in an atmosphere without exhaust fumes. All that looks pretty good.

The storekeepers seem to believe in the new vitality of downtown : in Roe street many shop are in works or for sale. In Ralliement square, a restaurant has just been refurnished and another one will open within a few weeks. A space the Angers inhabitants love could derserve more animation, especially on sundays. May a city heart stop beat with so much new arteries?