Website: www.elcidis.org
Synopsis
La Rochelle, a city of 135,000 inhabitants on the French Atlantic coast, was one of the first European cities with a traffic policy aimed at reducing environmental pollution. As a part of this policy, the municipality has been promoting the use of electric cars, bicycles and public transport. Carriage of goods in cities, where most logistics chains begin or end, is an activity that generates increasingly severe problems for local authorities. Especially in the narrow streets of the historic centre of La Rochelle, distribution activities cause environmental as well as congestion problems.
Solving of these problems lies in a reorganisation of urban logistics, also focusing particular attention on new, more environmentally sound transport technologies. In this sense, the project launched by the Urban Community of La Rochelle is genuinely innovative. Its aim was to seek cross-pollination between the issue of "city freight distribution" and La Rochelle's experience in the use of electric vehicles. The project involved the setting up of an urban distribution platform near the city centre, from which electric-powered commercial vehicles (e.g. Citroën's Berlingo) deliver and collect parcels. Their design makes them well suited for the narrow streets of the city's historic centre. During the initial phase, only express delivery-type parcels were handled.
Management of the platform was outsourced, following a Europe-wide consultation process and then a negotiated contract. The company commissioned for this task was Transports Genty, a private company operating regionally but already established in La Rochelle.
ELCIDIS was designed not only to promote delivery in electric vehicles, but also to relieve traffic congestion in the centre by reorganising deliveries. To that end, a new traffic regulation was adopted: heavy freight-delivery vehicles (i.e. GVW exceeding 3.5 tons) are only allowed to deliver within the perimeter between 6 and 7.30 pm.
The ELCIDIS project ended in July 2002, but the system is still running. It is to be adapted according to its evaluation.
Target groups: shopkeepers
Fields: goods delivery
This case study is one of 175 projects from the Smile Project Local Experiences Database listed on this website.
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