Draw up a plan to make roads and public spaces accessible: experimentation in Valenciennes ; Elaborer un plan de mise en accessibilité de la voirie et des aménagements des espaces publics : expérimentation à Valenciennes
The Law of 11 February 2005 for persons with disabilities requires municipalities or their public inter-municipal cooperation institutions to draw up plans for the accessibility of roads and public spaces within three years from the date of publication of the implementing decree of 21 December 2006. These plans must form an integral part of urban transport plans where they exist. Conversely, the plan must take account of the provisions of the urban transport plan and the local transport plan, if any. This new provision reinforces the importance of the link between roads and public spaces in the travel chain. The question arises as to its content, the scope of the plan, the way in which it is drawn up and its scope chosen. At the request of CERTU, CETE Nord Picardie conducted an experiment with the agglomeration of Valenciennes in order to develop a diagnostic method involving the various local actors. This agglomeration was in the interest of having carried out a major refurbishment around the tramway line project with a strong mobilisation of a group of associations of people with disabilities. The cross-cutting approach was based on information sources such as urban planning documents, the PLU's PADD, road safety data and parking facilities. A survey was carried out to find out about the displacement practices of persons with disabilities. The diagnostic phase then consisted of defining routes, distinguishing between modes of travel — walking alone, car walking, public transport walking. The collection of data was carried out with a view to developing a Geographical Information System (GIS), a shared management tool. As a real project approach, this experiment shows how a step-by-step approach can be developed, thus helping to identify ways of drawing up plans for the accessibility of roads and the development of public spaces. It also highlights the fact that the stage of presentation of the diagnosis and ownership of the issues by the various actors in the city or agglomeration is essential, even if it takes ...