Transit ranks high in an urban livability survev conducted earlier this year by the national newsweekly L'Express in the seven largest French cities. Nancy got the top honors, followed by Strasbourg and Toulouse.
The respondents gave their views on more than a dozen topics judged by the weekly to be especially important to women, ranging from day care center availability to income equality, pollution, and public transit. Transit was given high marks in all of the big cities from the feminine perspective.
Strasbourg Mayor Catherine Trautmann, honorary president of the Femmes en Mouvement association, was one of the interviewees. She defined her own perspective that led to Strasbourg's award-winning "Supertram."
"I approached Strasbourg from the point of view of a disabled person," Trautmann said. "If one looks at a city from the standpoint of those who are less well off, the result can benefit everyone. A sidewalk lowered so as to give easy passage to a wheelchair is also helpful to those with strollers or bikes. My way of looking at the tram was very different from that of the designers. I told them, 'Let's imagine that I am with two kids, one in a stroller, the other on a tricycle. I'd like to get into the tram without a problem.' That's how we got the super-low floors and the protective sleeve that prevents a little one from slipping into a crack. I also wanted very large windows. And I asked for sidewalks where one could walk with high heels. Details? Sure, but important for daily living."
These are the "details" that the FeM association would like to see the builders of urban rolling stock take into consideration.
FeM has worked out an accessibility "platform" that is being presented to French and international transit design and construction firms. The platform is based on three principal criteria: accessibility, comfort, and urbanity.
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